Moon's Herald
by Swingblues
Summary: An orphaned pup with no memories was taken in by humans, but now that she's grown, weird things start to happen. Her destiny is greater than she could know. HigeXBlue, KibaXOC later
1. Prologue

Hey everyone! Thanks for choosing my story. Just to get started:

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Wolf's Rain and I never will, so this goes for all the chapters. If I ever use anything else that's not mine, like a song or something, I'll have a disclaimer for that, but not before.

Okay, one other thing. This is the first fic I have ever done, so I'm sorry for any OOCness or anything like that which I might do by accident. I know some people probably won't like me messing with stuff, but I can't please everybody, just myself and hopefully a few other people. If you like the story or you have any advice for me, please review but DON'T FLAME. I don't like unnecessarily mean people. Well that's all for now, so here goes.

**  
Moon's Herald  
**Prologue

There aren't many stories told in this world, if any at all, in which wolves are the heroes instead of the bloodthirsty villains. Maybe you were raised on those ancient fairy tales where the evil "Big Bad Wolf" devours innocent children, or the not-so-ancient ones that say wolves died out and no longer exist at all. Maybe you believe these stories. Or maybe, like I was when I was younger, you are completely unaware that such creatures were ever even alive or spoken of in the first place. Until now, that is.

I was no wiser than you are when I first learned about wolves. I, too, hated and feared them for a long time and wished for them to disappear from the world. I thought they could do nothing but destroy and bring evil and death wherever they went. And then I learned how wrong I was.

In my life I've had the privilege and pleasure (and sometimes frustration) of knowing the noblest and bravest of wolves. They were a small and rather mismatched pack who came together to chase a dream, to find a Paradise of their own, and their spirit gave me hope when I had none left and taught me the true meaning of friendship and family. They are the ones who gradually melted the ice wall I'd put around my heart. I love humans, but I will always cherish wolves more dearly, thanks to them.

Now I've been charged with telling this very different kind of "fairy tale" to anyone who will listen, human or wolf. It makes me a bit sad to remember and I don't know what good, if any, can come from my words, but if I can change the heart of even one person who listens today from despair to hope for something better, I suppose I'll have to be content.

So I'll take you back with me on the journey that changed me so completely, in hopes that it will do the same for you. And to do that, we have to start from the beginning . . .


	2. Happy Days

Moon's Herald

Chapter 1: Happy Days

My name is Foxfire, or just Foxie for short. It's kind of a weird name, I know, but I like it. My humans made it up for me because my fur is a bright orange-red like a fox's pelt, and the farmer used to say that sunlight makes it shine like fire. I don't know if that's really true, but it's a nice thought – I mean, I'd like to imagine my fur's that pretty.

Anyway, just the thought that my human family cared enough to put so much thought into my name makes me feel so warm and fuzzy inside that I love it no matter how weird it is. Hell, they probably could've called me something _really_ dumb like Princess or Fluffy (yuck – WAY too cute for me) and I still would've liked it. . . . Okay, maybe not, but you get my point. They were just so good to me.

The farmer found me abandoned and wandering around in his cornfield as a pup. I was starving and weak and I had nothing at all to offer anyone – I couldn't even remember who I was or how I got there – but the humans took me in anyway. They gave me a great home and new memories to fill the void, so I'll always be grateful to them for that.

Damn, I miss them so much. Because it didn't last that long, you see. I thought I'd found a home for the rest of my life, but it seems that idea was doomed from the beginning. Oh, things were great for a while, but then weird stuff started to happen. It all started during the heat wave that suddenly came up one spring, when it seemed like summer had decided to come months early. If it hadn't been for that, I'd still be home on the farm and none of the other stuff would've happened. I wouldn't have traveled miles and miles for nothing and I wouldn't be all alone right now. I know it all happened for a very important reason and I'm needed now, but it still seems so pointless sometimes and I wish . . .

Well, never mind that. It's too late for wishes, and now I'm just getting ahead of myself. Back to what I was saying.

I spent all my happy puppy days on that farm, well into my third year, I guess; I don't really know when I was born, so I've never been sure of my age. The farm was kind of small, but very cozy. There was a two-storied, whitewashed house where I lived with the farmer, his wife, and their young son and baby daughter. There were also a barn, stables, a big corral, a little pond, a chicken coop, and lots of fields for growing crops and pasturing animals. There were other areas and buildings, too, but I wasn't allowed in them and so I don't know what they were for. And all around the property was a dense forest whose many trees changed their leaves' colors in the fall, making a beautiful view for anyone who cared to look.

Things on the farm were always pretty busy, but for the first year or two, I didn't do anything important because I was too small. I spent all my time sleeping or playing with the little boy, Michiru. We had lots of fun and sometimes got in big trouble, like that time with the skunk (I've hate the smell of tomato juice ever since), but once we got older, we both had to start working. For Michiru, that meant things like milking cows or pitching hay, but my job was a lot more exciting. I got to be a sheepdog!

Sure, I made a fool of myself at first, tripping all over myself and stuff, but after almost a year of training, I became a pro at it and was given the responsibility of herding the whole flock of thirty sheep between the pasture and their pen every day. Don't get me wrong – it was hard work! But it was still fun and I loved it; I still miss it sometimes.

The day the weird things started happening, I knew I was going to have my work cut out for me. I was about two and a half years old then, and the time of year was mid-spring, with mild weather expected for a few months yet. The sudden bout of hot weather that happened that year was something no one on the farm had ever seen before, and it caused a panic. The farmer feared that summer was starting early, and he had only just begun to plant the crops. And more importantly in my case, the sheep weren't shorn yet. If they kept their thick winter wool too long, they would overheat and become sick and irritable. The farmer tried his best to speed up all the farm operations, which would mean a busy day of herding for me.

On that day, which was one of the hottest in the heat wave, I thought I could understand how the sheep felt, since my own winter coat was barely half-shed and I felt like passing out in the overbearing sunshine. I hid in the dirty, musty crawl space under the front porch of the house all morning while I waited for the farmer to call me, so desperate for the cool shade that I was willing to ignore all the spiders and other creepy-crawlies that were skittering around under there.

Finally, I heard a sharp whistle cut through the humid air, and the farmer' voice yelling, "Foxfire! Here, girl!" I scrambled to my feet and darted out of my hiding place and into the yard, shaking off any unwanted passengers that might be clinging to my fur. The farmer and Michiru, who was then about fourteen, came down the stairs, the boy crying, "Hey, Foxie! I've got a treat for you, _if_ you can find it."

It was a favorite game of ours – Michiru hid a dog treat somewhere on him, usually in a pocket or a shoe or something, and I had to find it before he'd let me eat it. I usually had to knock him down to find it because he kept pushing me away so I couldn't sniff him. But I was strong and had a good nose, so I always won in the end.

While my friend and I romped around the yard, glad to have this increasingly rare chance to play, the farmer gathered up the tools he'd need, including the shears for cutting the wool and some kind of metal tube that's apparently used for giving medicine to animals. Then he said to us, "Come on now, you two clowns. We've got a lot of work to do."

"Okay, Dad," said Michiru, laughing and pushing me off him. He stood up and hooked his fingers under my chain collar, took the burlap sacks his father gave him under one arm, and went through the gate toward the sheep pen. I let the boy lead me, chomping all the while on the dog treat I'd found in the top of his sock. The farmer followed with the rest of the equipment, closing the gate behind him.

* * *

It was as hot as ever at the sheep pen. I could hear the disgruntled bleats when we were still a long way off and I knew the sheep were already in a bad mood, much as the other farm animals seemed to be. As we crossed the dusty yard, dry dirt billowing up in clouds around us, I heard the angry whinnying of a new horse being broken in by farmhands over in the corral. The men were yelling at the horse and at each other, the heat making them irritable. The farmer called out to admonish them as he opened the pen's gate to let us through.

The sheep pen was large, as it would have to be to hold thirty sheep comfortably, and it had a single tree in one corner, under which all the sheep were huddled. The farmer and Michiru put down their burdens and set up everything they would need while I sat surveying the sheep and panting. The heat was already getting to me again, but I had to ignore it and focus on the task ahead.

They would probably send me for the ram first, to get him over with. He was dangerous under any circumstances, but he'd be twice as likely to attack in the mood he was in now. I watched the old ram cropping grass on the outer edge of the flock and tried to plan my strategy until the farmer said, "Here, Foxie. Drink up and we'll get started." He poured water from his canteen into a tin bowl for me, and I took a few laps before going to sit by his side to show I was ready to work.

As soon as the farmer whistled the first command, I was off like a shot, digging my claws into the ground and propelling myself toward the sheep at the other end of the pen. That was my favorite part of herding – the running, I mean. I've always been the kind who likes to be up and doing something; the more fast-paced, the better. I loved the feel of the ground whizzing by beneath my paws, the wind whistling through my fur, and even the way everything around me got all blurry from the speed. It's what I imagined flying would be like, and that's why I loved my job so much.

As I approached the flock, all the ewes and lambs began to bleat in fear and cluster together, preparing to bolt. I ignored all but the ram as I arced around behind him, cutting him off from the fleeing ewes even as he tried to charge me. I darted out of his way, growling at him and glaring into his eyes with a piercing stare from my yellow ones. That was my favorite trick – the stare could often paralyze animals, and the ram was no exception. He whirled around for another charge, but found himself frozen when he met my gaze.

I bounded toward the ram, teeth bared and a growl sounding in my throat. He held his ground uncertainly for maybe two seconds, but then turned and hurtled off down the length of the fence. I followed, keeping close behind him and nipping at his heels a little to scare him, while the farmer whistled out when to change direction or back off a little.

Once I got the ram close enough, the farmer threw a lasso around its neck and, using this and his own body, wrestled the bleating sheep to the ground and restrained it. I watched passively as the farmer sheared the ram, clipped its hooves, and forced the medicine tube into its mouth. The ram, in no mood to cooperate, struggled through the whole thing, but the farmer finally finished and released the animal to let it rejoin the flock. Michiru picked up all the shorn wool and stuffed it into the sacks he'd brought. Knowing it was almost my turn again, I trotted to my water bowl, took a few laps, and then sat down by the farmer and waited for him to send me for the next sheep.

We passed the whole afternoon that way – me bringing the sheep to the farmer one by one and him shearing, clipping, and medicating them while Michiru gathered the wool. The ram was less vindictive than before, but I still had to dodge at least one charge from him every time I went out for another sheep. None of the ewes or lambs struggled too much, and we were done with our work by the start of sunset.

"Well, that'll do, Foxfire," said the farmer, giving me the signal that we were finally finished. "That'll do."

I immediately flopped down next to my water dish, exhausted. Sure, I loved running, but even I had my limits. The farmer patted my head and poured more water for me, and then he called over two farmhands to help Michiru with the bags of wool.

"Hey, Dad," said Michiru suddenly as he tied up one of the bags with twine, "the sheep haven't been out to pasture today, have they?"

The farmer paused in tying his own bag. "No . . . no, they haven't. But now it's dinner time and your mom will be waiting, and I've still got to check on the planting, and your new horse . . ." He started rubbing his forehead as if it ached. "Damned unseasonable weather's completely thrown me off."

"Oh no, it's okay," the boy replied quickly. "I'm sure they've got enough grass in here for one day. Or, if you like, . . . I suppose Foxie and I could take them out there for an hour or so."

I listened to this exchange from my place on the ground, groaning inwardly because I knew I was headed for more work, but at the same time feeling sorry for the farmer and wanting to help. _Okay, fine_, I thought, _what's one more hour?_ I pushed myself up, shook my fur free of loose grass, and went over to sit by the farmer. I was tired, but it wouldn't kill me to keep going just a little longer. And besides, it was the farmer who usually went out to the pasture with me – if Michiru was going now, then this was something special.

The farmer, seeing that I seemed up for the job, smiled down at me with those clear blue eyes that had little laugh-lines in the corners, and said, "Well, I guess that'll be alright. But just for an hour. And make sure you keep your eyes open. Guarding thirty sheep is a big job for anyone to handle alone, even a great shepherd like our little Foxie."

He patted my head once more and then gathered up the tools. As he and the farmhands left the pen with the tools and wool, the farmer called back, "Be careful, son. We'll expect you back in an hour."

"No problem, Dad," Michiru called back. As soon as his father was out of earshot, the boy ran over to the old tree, causing the startled sheep resting under it to run off on thundering hooves to another corner of the pen. At the tree, Michiru picked up a fallen branch and stood it up on one end; it stood about shoulder-high to him and was thick enough to be grasped comfortably in his fist. Then he ripped off a few leaves and twigs that were still clinging to the branch and, seeming satisfied, came back over to me with his new walking stick. I thought I saw a mischievous gleam in his brown eyes.

"So, Foxie," he said, leaning down to me and grinning, "are you ready to have some fun, just like the old days?"

I barked happily and jumped up, slapping the ground with my front paws and waving my tail in the air, a dog's signal to play. Maybe I could wake myself up a little for this after all.

XXXX

A/N: Thank you, reviewers! I didn't think anyone would say such nice things about just the prologue! Hope you like the rest as much. So anyhoo, there's your intro to Foxie and her life so far. I hope it didn't suck because I really did try hard. What do you think will happen in the field? I'm not telling, so read on to find out!


	3. The Shadow Dog

**Moon's Herald**

Chapter 2: The Shadow Dog

One thing I've learned in my life is that any good thing that happens to you, or any fun thing you do, is twice as special when you share it with someone you love. That evening I spent in the pasture with Michiru was magical, partly because it was the first time we had gone off to play together since we were tiny pups, and partly because it was the last carefree hour I would have for a long time to come, though I didn't know it then.

Now that the hot sun was going down and their wool was summer-light, the sheep were calm enough that driving them to the pasture was blessedly easy; even the ram was docile and made no trouble. I trotted along on one side of the flock and Michiru walked on the other, using his walking stick to nudge back into line any sheep that seemed inclined to wander off in another direction. When we reached the pasture, which was on the very edge of the property on the farthest side, the sky was stained pinkish-red in the west and purple where the red met the fading blue of the eastern sky. Fluffy clouds like pink marshmallows floated in the midst of it all.

Surrounded by this beautiful scenery, the sheep got right to the business of grazing on the new spring grass, good-naturedly ignoring me and Michiru as we raced playfully back and forth among them. Tired as I was, I seemed to have found my second wind; I ran and jumped right along with the boy, barking as he laughed, and chasing my tail as he spun in dizzy circles. When Michiru got so dizzy that he fell down, I pounced on him and we wrestled as we had back in our puppy days. I know we were acting really stupid, but I didn't care. It's fun to act stupid sometimes.

Eventually, we got so tired and out of breath that we knew it was time for a rest. We went up to the highest point of the field, on top of a little hill that rose up near the middle. I lay down with my head on my paws and Michiru sat beside me, scratching behind my ears as he tried to catch his breath. "Whew," he said, "that was fun, eh, Foxie? Too bad we don't have time to play more often."

I wagged my tail a few times in response while quickly weeping the pasture before us with both my eyes and my nose to make sure all was well with the sheep. Though sheep can often seem to be all alike to a human, I knew each one in my flock by sight and scent and could check on all of them just by sifting through these scents. The sheep were all present and accounted for, and grazing peacefully, so I closed my eyes and just enjoyed the gentle breeze that had begun to blow and the feeling of Michiru petting me. For a few minutes, I knew nothing but this utter peace and happiness. I heard Michiru comment that our hour was nearly up, but he didn't sound in a hurry, either.

Then I heard it. Actually, I didn't even realize that I had heard a sound at first, and I still don't remember exactly what it was; my ears just pricked up of their own accord and turned toward the forest on the other side of the pasture fence, just beyond the border of the farm property. A moment later, I came to my senses and my head shot up as I gazed toward the forest. Michiru and I used to play in there a lot when we were small, sneaking away to have our own little adventures. But no more, not since the farmer's wife found out and started lecturing Michiru periodically about the dangers that lurked there – wild animals, traps, hunters who could mistake him for game, cliffs he could fall off of. We'd heard it all a million times before the woman was done.

I used to think she was so paranoid when she started on a tirade, but gradually I realized that she was at least a _little_ right. While guarding the sheep, there had been a few occasions when a wildcat or a fox ventured out of the woods and I had to fight it and run it off, and although it was nothing I couldn't handle, I didn't really want Michiru to be around such creatures. They were tricky and more than a little dangerous if provoked, and I learned to be wary of them.

That might explain the uneasy shiver that ran down my spine when I looked into the shadows under the trees, though I couldn't actually see anything there. I couldn't smell anything, either, because we were upwind of the forest. But _something_ had startled me out of my peaceful doze, and I had to find out what it was. I jumped to my feet and loped purposefully down the hill and across the field with my eyes fixed on the forest, ignoring the sheep that hurried out of my way and Michiru's call. If he wanted to know what the matter was, he'd have to come along with me, though I hoped he wouldn't in case I had to fight another wildcat or something.

I didn't stop or even slow down till I came right up against the fence. I squinted through the wire mesh that was stretched between the horizontal logs and stared into the dark forest, boring as far into the shadows as my eyes would let me. It was eerily quiet in the space between the fence and the trees. All my senses strained for some sign of the source of whatever miniscule sound had disturbed me. It was my job to protect the sheep at any cost, and I was _very_ serious about this when it came right down to it. However, after a few minutes of intense concentration, nothing showed itself and I began to relax. Must've been a false alarm.

I was just about to turn back and return to Michiru when the wind suddenly shifted, bringing to my nose an odd scent I had never smelled before. Some kind of animal, it smelled like. I snapped my head back around to stare at the forest once more, nostrils flaring to catch more of that indefinable scent. My ears pricked forward, straining for any sounds, and I stared so hard into the trees that my head ached. A low growl started in my throat, but I held it back for the time being.

A few moments ticked by with no change, but now I _knew_ there was a creature of some kind out there, and I gradually let out the growl I was suppressing. Suddenly, there came an answering growl from among the trees, and I fell silent in sudden fear. The shadows under the large oak at the edge of the woods had come together and taken shape, and they were _staring_ at me. This animal, whatever it was, was so dark in color that it actually seemed to be made of shadows; I could barely separate its outline from its surroundings, but from what I could tell, it was huge and had bushy black fur and pointed ears that stood erect on top of its head. It had such a big, deep voice that I could almost feel the vibrations in my own chest.

It was night now, and the moon must have suddenly come out from behind a cloud, because next thing I knew there was enough light to illuminate the shadow-beast, making its bared white fangs glow. It was a dog. . . . Wait, a dog? But it was way too big, and it smelled so _wrong_ for a dog. I could tell it was a male whatever-it-was, but nothing beyond that made any sense. And then I noticed the worst, most disturbing thing about this animal – its eyes were _white_. There was a large black pupil at the center of each eye, but the rest was completely white. This "dog" was the most unearthly thing I had ever seen, and I began to quiver as my tail crept between my legs.

Just then, I heard an uneasy bleat from somewhere behind me and was suddenly reminded of the sheep and my duty to protect them, and Michiru in this case, from wild animals like this. Somehow, this realization gave me the strength I needed and my fear turned abruptly to protective fury. I burst out barking like crazy, with my teeth bared and my ears laid back against my skull. I felt the guard hairs on my neck hackle, and I threw myself repeatedly against the fence, snapping my jaws so violently that saliva went flying everywhere.

The shadow dog had been looking at me until that point with an odd expression somewhere between hate and curiosity in its eyes, but it snapped its jaws back at me and growled even louder than before when it saw the change in my demeanor, and its white eyes burned menacingly for a few moments before it whirled and, with another flash of white, disappeared once more into the shadows.

"Foxie! Foxie!" came Michiru's distressed call as he ran up behind me at last. "What is it, girl?"

I had stopped barking by the time the boy reached me. I was just standing there now, every muscle tense, staring into the woods after the shadow dog to make sure he was really gone. Even Michiru's warm hand in my fur didn't relax me. We stood together for a moment, looking out at the dark forest that had once been our playground. I couldn't believe at that moment that I had ever dared, much less desired, to go in there. You may think I was overreacting, but if you had seen it . . . . I had never known that our forest had animals like that one, but now that I did know, I totally agreed with the farmer's wife about that place and intended to keep a sharp eye on it.

"Foxie," said Michiru at length, "there's . . . nothing there. At least not now."

The boy tugged gently on my chain collar a few times, trying to pull me away from the fence, but I felt like I was under a spell or something. All I could think was, _what the hell_ was _that_ _thing?_ over an over again to the point that it drowned out everything else.

"Come _on_, Foxfire," Michiru said finally, tugging very hard and breaking me out of my daze. I turned around with him and followed him back to the flock. "We're late. Dad's gonna be pissed."

I waited while Michiru went to retrieve his walking stick. To avoid looking back at the forest, I looked up at the sky instead. It was now a dark blue-black, clear, and dotted with millions of bright stars. The moon was beautiful and full. Normally on such a beautiful night, I would sneak out of the house after everyone else was asleep and go out to the farthest end of the farthest field to make up songs to sing at the moon. I never really knew why I did it and I couldn't sing very well, but the moon's beauty was just so inspiring, even to a musically challenged dog like me. But that weird animal had freaked me out so much that I felt more like cowering under the sofa than singing. _Oh well_, I thought with a sigh, _maybe I'll just forget about it soon. Yeah, that's it; I'll just forget. _

I nearly jumped out of my skin at Michiru's shrill whistle. I snapped myself back to attention as best I could and immediately sprung into action, hoping to numb my racing mind with the sound of pounding hooves and the feeling of the night breeze as Michiru and I rounded up the sheep to bring them home.

XXXX

A/N: Well, there's another chapter. Please R&R - it gives me encouragement to know people are actually reading this!


	4. About Wolves

A/N: Hey, I'm back! I try to update often, but I have been drowning in homework and papers and very hard tests, so I just have to do the best I can in my spare time. Anyhow, thank you to everyone who reviewed! I luv you guys! I just want to say that my chapters may be longer now because I'm getting to the parts with lots of dialogue, and I have to put spaces between it, you know? Sometimes I worry over stuff like that. But I'll shut up now so you can get to reading!

**Moon's Herald**

Chapter 3: About Wolves

My sleep that night was plagued by awful dreams. At first, being back in the comforting safety of the farmhouse had actually made me feel better after all, but as soon as I closed my eyes and dozed off, I saw that shadow dog's savage face again.

Well, it was actually a bit different from _his_ face. What I kept seeing was the same kind of huge dog, but its fur was a mix of gray and white, rather than black. Its eyes were bright green and full of blind rage, but seemed devoid of all other emotion. The dog was snarling and barking, snapping its jaws and thrashing its head from side to side, and its unfocused gaze didn't even seem to recognize anything it looked at. Something was coming out of its mouth, too, coating its fangs and lips and spraying out when its head thrashed. Some kind of thick, white liquid.

With this dog looming over me and its mad snarling making my ears ring, I felt only an overwhelming helplessness and fear such as I had never known before. I wanted to run away, but at the same time I wanted to run up to that dog and lick its face, whimper encouragingly to it so it would stop acting crazy and scaring me. I had a feeling that I should be able to trust this creature, that it was safe, but that something was horribly wrong with it. Utter confusion and conflicting emotions kept me rooted to the spot so long that I was sure I'd soon be killed. But all of a sudden, I felt a heavy blow on the back of my head and heard a dull thud, and everything went dark for a moment.

I woke with a start, panting heavily and staring around with wide eyes, to see that I had rolled off my pillow in front of the fireplace and cracked my head on the leg of the coffee table. The living room was dark now that all the candles had burned out. The only sounds were the ticking of the mantle clock and the deep snoring of the farmer's wife, who had apparently fallen asleep on the sofa with her knitting still in her lap and the baby asleep in a basket by her feet.

My mouth felt dry as I kicked away the sheet that had gotten tangled around my hind legs and stood up shakily. I snuck past the farmer's wife as quietly as possible and went into the kitchen, my claws softly clicking on the linoleum floor. I stopped only long enough to drink from my water dish, and then crossed directly to the swinging dog door and went out into the yard.

By the position of the moon, I knew it was way past midnight but still a little while till dawn. I trotted quickly across the farmyard, intent on my mission. With my dream fresh in my mind, fear gave me speed. I had to know exactly what it was I had seen, what I could expect it to do. Most animals would take the hint and go far, far away from a farm that had a dog to guard it, but I had a strong feeling this wasn't most animals. I was afraid of waking in the night and finding it standing over me – or worse, over one of the children. And although I was clueless about shadow dogs, there was one thing I did know at least: if you want to find answers about something, ask someone older and wiser than you are.

I slowed down as I approached the barn, so as not to startle the animals inside. A ginger cat hiding in the shadow of a rain barrel hissed at me as I passed; I shot it a disapproving glare but otherwise ignored it. Pushing the barn door open quietly, I slipped inside and searched around in the dark, peering into every stall, my steps muffled by all the hay strewn on the floor. The animals were all sleeping peacefully in their stalls, but the one I had come to see didn't seem to be there. Disappointed, I turned to leave, but stopped when a gruff voice suddenly said, "Who's there?"

I looked up to see the horned head of the brown cow in the farthest stall leaning out into the aisle, her bulging eyes glaring in annoyance although I knew she couldn't see anything. Knowing I was trapped anyway because her hearing made up for her nearsightedness, I sighed and trotted back to her stall and sat down. "It's just me Ms. Ushi," I said politely, for this particular cow could be very bad-tempered if you weren't respectful enough to her. "Sorry; I didn't mean to wake you. I was just leaving, anyway."

"Hm," Ushi grunted. "And what's got you up and about so late?"

"I was just looking for Thorny. To ask him a question. Have you seen him?"

The cow immediately looked bored. "Oh, that old mongrel. He stepped out a while ago and I haven't seen him since. Don't know where he went." Then her eyes brightened a little. "But you could always ask _me_ your question. I know quite a lot, myself; at least as much as _he_ does."

"Uh . . ." I quickly searched my mind for some way to say "no" that wouldn't offend her, but no ideas were forthcoming. Ushi was a very old cow. In her prime, she had been an excellent breeder, and that's why the farmer hadn't turned her into hamburgers or ground beef or something, like he did with most of the other cattle. But these days, Ushi was half-blind and not good for much besides making fertilizer; her only pastime now was gossip, and that's probably the only reason she was interested in anything I had to say.

Such a temperamental old cow could make things very unpleasant for anyone who had to deal with her, so everyone, including me, tried to humor her in order to keep the peace. But it wasn't always easy. Since I couldn't figure a way out of the situation, I relented and told Ushi my problem. I described the shadow dog and everything that happened in the pasture, but I left out my dream. I'd save that for Thorny.

"Well," said Ushi when I was done talking, "that's easy enough. If it's just a crazy wild dog, I don't think you have to worry about it, dear. If you see it again, I'm sure you can fight it off. After all, that's what you _do_, isn't it?" She sounded very pleased with herself.

"No, you're not listening! . . . .ma'am," I added hastily, trying to remember my manners in spite of my exasperation. "I said it _looked_ kind of like a dog, but I'm willing to bet it wasn't. It smelled all wrong, and it had white eyes and kind of _glowed_. Do you know of any animals that look like dogs but smell different?"

Ushi sniffed. "Hm, I hardly concern myself with the way things _smell_. Unless it's grass, or maybe one of my calves. Smells are really something that you dogs seem more preoccupied with."

"Okaaaay . . . Well, I guess you can't help me, then. I'll just find out about the dog from someone else. I'm gonna go now, so you can go back to sleep, or whatever." I got up to go, and Ushi started sputtering protests, but she couldn't figure out a way to make me stay and talk to her without looking desperate, so in the end she just turned up her nose and tried to look like she couldn't care less what I did. I only got about six feet from the cow's stall, however, when I was stopped in my tracks by another voice. "W-wait!" it said. "What you're describing sounds just like a w-wolf!"

"Wolf?" I asked, turning to see who had spoken. "What's that?"

The speaker turned out to be a dappled horse a few stalls down. I recognized him as Michiru's new horse, the one who was being broken out in the corral he previous afternoon. From his shaken, nervous appearance and stuttering speech, though, I'd say he hadn't taken to it very well. The whites of his eyes were showing and he looked like he'd faint at the sight of his own shadow.

"Wh-what's a wolf?" he said incredulously. "Only the s-scariest kind of animal there is! Like you said, they look like huge dogs, and they live w-wild in the forests and sometimes in cities, too. They're f-fierce and dangerous alright, and always hungry. Eat you up as soon as look at you!"

"Really?" I asked, wide-eyed.

"Y-yeah," replied the horse. "Did you really see one out there earlier? If there are wolves here, we should all run away! They'll come in here any minute and k-kill us all!" He pranced nervously in the stall.

"No, it's gone," I hastened to assure the frightened animal. "I saw it leave myself. I just wanted to know more about it."

"Th-they're tricky, wolves are," he continued, stamping and snorting impatiently. "You can't trust them to be gone even when you see them g-go. I bet it's just waiting out there, and the moment you go outside, it'll pounce on you and t-tear your throat out!" I swallowed hard with a loud gulp and shot a look at the door, shivering in spite of myself.

"Now just wait a minute!" Ushi cried suddenly and vehemently. She sounded outraged. "What are you thinking, you imbecile? Filling the poor child's head with all that nonsense. There's no such thing as wolves, not anymore. They all died out back in ancient times, long before even our great-great-grandsires were alive. Even you must know that!"

"Th-that's not true," the horse retorted. "I've seen them."

"Oh, really? Where?" asked the cow in a very condescending tone.

"In the city where I lived with my last master, n-not even a month ago."

"Liar."

I had no idea what to make of any of this. I sat about halfway between the two stalls, turning my head back and forth as the animals hurled insults and such at each other. I was baffled. What exactly was a wolf, and how could a neurotic horse and a snobby old cow who barley ever left the barn anymore know so much about something I'd never even heard passing mention of before?

"And just what did your human do when he saw this wolf?" Ushi was saying.

"He didn't even see it," said the horse. "Don't ask me how, but this huge wolf was walking r-right down a crowded street, and none of the humans even b-batted an eye. Some of them were looking right at it, t-too. I don't get it. It was even bigger than this d-dog right here." He pointed at me with his nose. It was true that I had always been considered a pretty big dog, but I was nothing compared to that white-eyed monster in the forest.

"Um, excuse me," I chimed in, taking advantage of a lull in the conversation. My mind was spinning and I had to stop them fighting before I went mad. Both animals stopped and looked my way when I spoke. Thank heaven. "Let me just get this straight, guys. So these wolf things at least _did_ exist at one time, right?"

They both nodded. "And they looked like dogs, yes?"

Another nod. "But they were very dangerous and not the kind of thing you want to mess with?"

Nods again. "Okay, then," I said pleasantly. "I _have_ learned something tonight, so you've both been very helpful. But I have to go back to bed now; busy day tomorrow and all. So, bye!" With that, I got up and booked it out of the barn as fast as my legs would carry me, and before either animal could start arguing again.

As I went out the door, I heard Ushi call after me, needing to have the last word, "Don't listen to him, honey! All that galloping around horses do knocks their brains around; makes 'em a bit funny in the head!"

"Wh-what?" cried the horse. "Hey!"

* * *

I was so relieved to be out of the argument in the barn that I didn't even know anyone else was in the barnyard with me till I barreled directly into a warm, furry body and tumbled head over heels with a yelp. For a moment I was afraid it was the wolf again, but when I scrambled to me feet and looked up, all I saw was a scruffy old Border collie shaking dirt out of his fur. I sighed in relief. "Thorny, thank goodness it's you!" I cried.

The collie looked up at me and his eyes brightened. "Hey there, Red," he said, "I've just been out for a walk, but I didn't expect to see you out here at this time of night. Are you goin' out to the field again?" He glanced up at the full moon.

"Um, no, I was actually looking for you, but no one in the barn knew where you were. I have something _really_ important to ask you." Thorny opened his mouth and pulled back his lips in a canine smile.

"Well then, fire away. I'm all ears!" said the old dog, wiggling his ears comically so I almost giggled. He must have heard the distress in my voice, and Thorny always knew how to cheer me up.

I suppose you could say that Thorny was my mentor. He had always been there to guide me in my puppy days, and I learned everything I know about herding from him. When he was young, Thorny and his older brother, Briar, had done the job as a team. I know that part of the reason the farmer decided to keep me was because the collie brothers were getting old by then, and someone would have to take over when they retired. I remember being a tiny pup and sitting by the farmer's feet in the pasture, watching Thorny and Briar dashing back and forth, smoothly dividing the flock and herding them home. It all seemed like a magical, graceful dance to me, and I always watched closely because I knew they were setting an example for me to follow.

Briar was already dead by the time the events I'm telling you about happened, and maybe it's horrible of me, but I was not sorry. Briar was such a bastard to me, always cuffing me roughly on the head, tripping me, discouraging me from becoming a sheepdog. He thought I was a joke because I was a foundling with "no breeding," and he let me know it every single day we lived together. And he didn't improve with age, believe me.

Thorny was the nice one – kind, understanding, and not afraid to stand up to his brother (which I was). Thorny took me under his wing, encouraged me, and gave me advice. He even took the scornful nickname Briar had invented to make fun of my fur, "Red," and turned it into an affectionate pet name instead. I loved Thorny like a father and respected him, too. I knew he was wise, with all his years, so I wasn't just being flattering or nice to an aged hound when I asked Thorny for advice, though I knew he appreciated being needed. If anyone could answer my questions, Thorny could.

Still, I found it a little hard to begin asking him because I realized how crazy it all sounded. It took some courage, but I managed to blurt out, "Thorny, I need you to tell me everything you know about wolves." My old teacher looked a little taken aback, and I heard a sharp intake of breath.

"Wolves?" he asked. "Now there's something I haven't heard about in a long time. A very long time. Why do you ask?" He didn't sound too upset, just surprised, so I quickly told him the whole story – the pasture, the dream, and even the conversation in the barn. _Then_ he looked uncomfortable, and that sure didn't help the way I felt.

"So you saw one in our forest, did you?" he asked, and I nodded. "That's strange. There hasn't been a wolf around here in over four years, to my knowledge. And that last one was in Stonewall, miles from here though it's the nearest town. I saw it myself when I was there with the farmer, so don't you worry about whether or not wolves exist – they certainly do. But I don't think they normally have white eyes. Was it blind?"

"No, it looked right at me." I shivered with the memory. "How come I've never heard of them?"

"Probably because nobody ever talks about them anymore. They're supposed to have been extinct for two hundred years now, so the humans think, anyway. And it's not so hard to believe when you consider how rarely they're ever seen. They've never come this far out before, so it's not surprising that you've never known about them. Even Ushi wouldn't know if it hadn't been for the wolf in Stonewall. Everyone talked about that for months."

"Why?"

"It was a big incident. The wolf was in the market square and no one saw it until a hunter ran out from an alley and started shooting at it. There are some humans who believe in wolves and hunt them for whatever reason. When this many attacked, the wolf revealed its true form to everyone and leaped at the man's throat. He was dead before he hit the ground, with his throat ripped out. Then the townspeople grabbed whatever they could get their hands on and attacked the wolf. A few of them died, but they killed it in the end and buried its body outside the town wall."

I was really trembling now. "So they are vicious; the horse was right."

"In certain circumstances, yes, they can be vicious. The important thing is not to attack them first or attract their attention. The farmer and I stayed quiet the whole time; there was nothing we could do." Thorny stopped for a moment and sighed. "I hoped you would never have to worry about such things, but you protect the sheep now. If you ever see a wolf again, you have to do whatever it takes to keep it from the flock."

"I know. I'm kind of scared, but it did run away from me like the wildcats do. Maybe we won't see it again. I just wish I knew why it had white eyes and why it looked at me like that. And why I had that dream." I looked expectantly at my teacher, but he seemed to suddenly find the ground we were sitting on infinitely fascinating.

"Well, I don't know about that, Red," Thorny said, "I've never been much good at such things. Sounds to me like the wolf really upset you. But don't worry about it. Odds are you'll never see it again; it must be long gone by now."

"Alright," I replied. I was getting tired all of a sudden, but I still had one more question before I went back to bed. "Thorny? You said something about the wolf's 'true form.' What's that mean?'

"Well, I suppose you should know about it. They say that the wolves have survived this long by somehow hiding themselves in human form. A dog in Stonewall told me that it seems to be some kind of spell they can do just by thinking, and it lets them go right in among the humans without a soul knowing about it. Except the animals, of course. Some can see right through the trick and others can tell by the scent, because the wolves can't hide that. A dog can always tell, anyway, because wolves are our ancestors and we're too close cousins not to recognize one another. Is that all you wanted to know, Red?"

I just stared speechlessly at him for a minute. Magic spells? Human forms? Ancestors? This was just all too weird. I finally said goodnight to Thorny, and he gave my cheek an affectionate lick and told me not to worry before we went our separate ways, he to his pile of straw in the barn and me to my pillow in the house. But I _was_ worried. Something strange was happening around here; I could feel it, though I didn't know what it could be. The sudden appearance of a weird animal that could work magic . . . I didn't know if I could believe it. One thing was for sure, though, I was going to be on the alert, especially after that story about the wolf in Stonewall. Nobody, but nobody, was gonna mess with _my_ family.

XXXX

A/N: Hope that was okay. Next chapter will have action and (gasp!) violence, so be prepared!


	5. Summer's End

A/N: Hey again, everybody. Sorry this is going so slow, but when I try to cut things out, it makes the story sound stupider (is that a word?). I promise, promise, promise that the WR guys will be in by Chapter 6 at _least_. Please have patience with me, I am but a lowly neophyte. R&R, puh-_leeze_!

**Moon's Herald**

Chapter 4: Summer's End

Months passed before anything else happened to disrupt my tranquil life, but all summer, I stuck to my vow and watched over the farm like a hawk. I checked the forest for wolves every day and often went back to the holding pen and the pasture several times a day to make sure the sheep were okay, or to have another look among the trees at the pasture's edge. Nothing was ever there, but I would rather be safe than sorry. At one point, the farmer got worried about me staring at nothing so much and almost called up the vet from town. The baby had begun crawling by then and was close to learning to walk, so whenever the humans brought her outside, I hovered over her like a nervous mother hen. It happened several times that summer that I was doing something and had my mind mostly occupied, when out of the corner of my eye I saw a dark shadow swiftly disappear behind a building. Whenever I checked, it turned out to have been my imagination, but it always made me remember the black wolf. I didn't even feel that the yard of the house was safe anymore.

After a while, though, I did manage to get back to doing some of the things I enjoyed, even with the nagging fear always in the back of my mind. It was autumn, after all, my favorite time of the year. There were crops to harvest; a celebratory dinner (in honor of the fact that we still _had_ crops to harvest after that weird heat wave, which suddenly ended a few days after the wolf's appearance) to look forward to; leaves to jump in with Michiru when he was supposed to be raking them. There was so much to think of, so much to do, that I probably could have forgotten the wolves once and for all if it hadn't been for the shadows and the dream, which I still had very often. It was always pretty much the same, though the shapes of a few green leaves had begun to appear at the edges of the vision and I had started to see the dream-wolf as being a bit shorter than before. The dream scared me awake every night I had it and I always walked a few laps around the house to calm myself. It did get exhausting, but I was dealing with it fine. Things were basically okay.

But disaster has the horrible habit of striking when you're busy looking the other way. I was being vigilant, but not enough so. Come to think of it now, there was probably nothing I could've done about anything that happened, except maybe mentally prepared myself for it better. Because I had never thought of anything beyond the farm, beyond my own little, happy life that was joyous and warm as a summer day. I never considered the fact that every summer has a cold, cruel winter that comes after it.

* * *

The night it happened started just like every other brisk autumn night we'd had that year. A chilly wind was blowing, laden with that distinctive but almost indescribable fall smell, the one that makes you think of pumpkins and hayrides and colorful leaves crunching underfoot. I could hear it rattling the window glass as I rested lazily on my pillow, the fire crackling merrily in the hearth on one side of me and the little calico kitten, a new daughter of the ginger cat who lived in the barn, playing noisily with a ball of yarn on the other. Honestly, I have no idea why the humans took her into the house instead of leaving her in the hayloft with the rest of her brothers and sisters – I mean, I don't _think_ we had any mice – but, like it or not, I was now a "big sister."

At the moment, I was trying to ignore everything and concentrate on the approaching dinner and who I should try to beg table scraps from, but suddenly a particularly loud THUD from under the coffee table chased all thoughts of food from my mind.

"What are you DOING under there!" I growled at the kitten in annoyance without opening my eyes. There was a bit of frantic scrambling, a moment of silence, and then a high, lisping voice said, "Uh, . . . none of your business."

With a sigh, I opened my eyes and turned around to see an absolutely hilarious sight. The kitten had gotten herself completely wound up in the bright blue yarn; it went around her legs, stomach, and head so many times that she looked like a tiny Egyptian mummy. And on top of that, the yarn was also wrapped around two of the table's legs, pulling the poor little furball in two opposite directions so she balanced precariously on the tips of her toes. She wasn't just a mummy; she was a mummy caught in a spider's web! I really tried not to laugh, but after only a moment I broke down in a fit of hysterical giggles while the kitten narrowed her green eyes and cried, "Hey, it's not funny!"

When I finally regained my composure, I gasped, "Geez, how'd you manage _that_ one, Tsuta?"

"I dunno," she replied sullenly, "I didn't mean to. But now I can't get out, and it's squeezin' me!" Tsuta wiggled around a bit, trying to free herself. Knowing how her wild imagination worked, I guessed that she meant the yarn was a constrictor snake trying to crush her. She could get so into her make-believe, and now she was starting to look panicked. I sighed and went up to the table to help my little charge. As I gnawed at the yarn around the table legs, the kitten squeaked, "Hurry up! I can't breathe!"

"Come on, you're not wrapped that tight," I mumbled around the yarn. "Quit being such a drama queen and hold still." After freeing her from the table, I picked Tsuta up by the yarn around her back and worried at the strands till they snapped one by one. The kitten tumbled to the floor just as the front door banged open and Michiru came into the house, cheeks red from the cold.

"And where have you been?" his mom yelled from the kitchen. "Dinner's been ready for ten minutes. You'd better hope it's still warm."

"Sorry, mom," he replied. "I was out riding and I lost track of time." Michiru stayed out late riding a lot now, since the dappled horse had finally gotten used to his new home and was getting along so well with the boy. The farmer sometimes joked that they'd be a first-class show jumping team by next spring, but Michiru was content with a gallop around the corral for the time being.

"Yes, yes, I know," said the farmer's wife, "but that's no excuse for not eating. Now hurry and get washed up for dinner." Michiru left his dirty boots by the door and went into the kitchen, ruffling my fur as he passed. I looked down at Tsuta and said, "Dinner time, let's go," but the kitten was still mad at me for dropping her, so she just stuck out her little pink tongue and blew a raspberry at me before sauntering off toward the kitchen.

Dinner was pretty normal that night, too. Tsuta had canned cat food and I had dry dog food, which Tsuta tried to steal from under my nose after she had inhaled her own meal like a vacuum cleaner. After I pushed her away a few times, ignoring her pathetic mewing and the way she rolled onto her back and pretended to be weak with hunger, she ignored me in favor of sliding repeatedly across the linoleum floor. The baby thought this extremely exciting and started to bounce and giggle in her high chair and bang her little spoon against her bowl, making mashed peas fly everywhere. The humans didn't freak out since this was more or less routine now, and the farmer's wife just wiped her daughter's face and calmly returned to her own meal. After dinner, everyone went to do their own thing for a few hours till bedtime, when the farmer's wife blew out the candles she lit at night to save on electricity and I settled on my pillow, Tsuta in her wicker basket, and the humans in their beds, and then we all went to sleep.

All that happened as usual, and also typical was the nightmare that greeted me when I slipped into slumber. I don't know how long I cowered before the crazy, green-eyed wolf that night, but just when I thought I couldn't stand it anymore, I was awoken by something very _un_familiar – namely, about a thousand razor-sharp knives being driven into my spine. Or at least that's what it felt like. The violently snapping jaws disappeared as I jolted awake with a strangled yelp of pain, casting my eyes anxiously around the dark room. Nothing seemed amiss, except that Tsuta wasn't in her basket. Now where . . .? Then I happened to look at my back, which still hurt, and there was the kitten, eyes wild and fearful, calico fur standing on end, and every one of her claws embedded in my flesh.

"What the hell! Get off!" I cried, rolling over without thinking, just wanting those claws gone. Tsuta squeaked when she realized what I was doing and jumped up in the air so that she came down on my belly, though this time she kept her claws sheathed. "What are you doing?" I whispered angrily at the kitten. I didn't want to wake the humans, so I kept my voice down.

"Listen," the wide-eyed calico said softly, a quaver of fear in her tiny voice. "Hear that noise?"

I listened. Yes, there it was. A kind of distant rumble, probably not loud enough for a human to hear, but just the kind of thing a cat would pick up on. "Thunderstorm?" I offered.

Tsuta shook her head. "I don't think so. It sounds too close to the ground. Listen again." I did, and in the meantime the kitten trembled against me as she waited. I knew she was letting her imagination start to get away with her when she said breathlessly, "Oh no! What if it's an elephant, or a rhinocelot, or . . . or a dinosaur?"

"It's _rhinoceros_," I said, "and I can assure you, it's none of those. Now shut up and let me think. It sounds a bit to me like somebody yelling or something." After another silent moment, Tsuta added, "Yeah, lots of somebodies." Suddenly, I rolled back over and stood up, dumping the kitten onto the rug. I was starting to get a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach and I didn't know why. Maybe it was because I'd never seen Tsuta so scared before. But didn't little kids like her always get themselves worked up over nothing?

"It's probably nothing, Tsuta," I said as I started for the kitchen, "but I'm gonna check it out anyway."

Tsuta trotted at my heels right up to the door. "I'm comin', too," she said, though she still looked upset.

"No, you're not. Stay here and, uh . . . protect the house."

"But I - "

"But nothing! Just do what I say this once, okay?"

"But I don't want the dragon to eat you!"

"_Dragon_? Tsuta, dragons aren't real and you're getting very hysterical right now. I think you should go back to bed. I'm just gonna see what that sound is, and then I'll be right back, okay?" As I spoke, I gently nudged the kitten back from the door and took the scruff of her neck gently in my teeth as if to say, _Stay here and don't be afraid_. That's something dogs do, but I hoped it would also calm down a frightened cat. We had only been living together for a few weeks, but I guess the little furball had really grown on me. Sometimes her annoyingly dramatic and confident personality made me forget she was still just a baby and needed reassuring. Though she still trembled, Tsuta finally did calm down enough to say shakily, "O-okay." Her voice was soft and she stared at the ground dejectedly. "But couldn't you take the farmer and his shotgun along, just in case?"

"Tsuta," I said in a warning tone. _Damn_, she was scared. Why did she want me to have a gun along because of a simple noise? Did she know something I didn't? I mean, I had heard cats had some kind of weird sixth sense apart from anything dogs have, but still . . . . I didn't let the kitten's misgivings shake my resolve, however. I gave her one last nudge toward the living room, then turned and headed for the door without hesitation. "Go back to bed," I said over my shoulder. "I'll be back before you know it."

As I pushed through the swinging flap of the dog door, I heard the little calico's lisping voice call after me in a loud, ragged whisper, "Be careful, big sister. _Please_."

* * *

It was the sheep who were crying out. I knew it the moment I got outside; I could smell their fear on the wind, hear their frantic bleating, feel the tremble of the earth beneath their stampeding hooves. My body's response to the distress of my flock was instantaneous – anger rose in my chest in the form of a low growl, my hackles raised and my lips curled back to reveal sharp fangs. I was flying across the farmyard almost before I knew what was happening, claws digging into the dirt and tail whipping back and forth to act as a rudder. I dodged around crates and barrels, fences and rusty machinery without a thought in my head except to reach the pen before any harm could befall the sheep.

The full moon lit my path, and bathed in its light, I almost felt like it gave me speed. In mere seconds, I had reached a point where I could see the pen, away beyond the sleeping buildings. The moonlight let me see the white forms of the sheep moving back and forth behind the fence, trying to stay in a tight group but being forced again and again to scatter, and also another shape, this one no more than a vague shadow, darting among the white shapes. My enemy. I pressed on with renewed purpose, spurred on by the cries of the flock. The ram was bleating the loudest, trying to intimidate the attacker, but even he sounded scared.

Knowing that the gate was locked and there was no way I could ever jump the fence – it was three logs high with tough wire mesh between the logs and a coil of barbed wire on top – I knocked over an empty barrel I passed and pushed it along before me as I ran. When I got close enough, I gave a harder push so the barrel went on ahead and struck the fence, and then I jumped onto it to give myself a boost. The barrel almost rolled out from beneath my paws as I leaped off of it, but I managed to clear the fence and land on all four paws on the other side. Though the panicked sheep were running about all around me and the air was thick with dust, I looked around for that dark shape and found it on one side of the pen, hiding in the shadows under the tree. The sheep fled from it, bunching up against the opposite fence and looking like they'd run right through it if they could. The dust cleared a little and I could see the dark shape put itself low to the ground and stalk slowly toward the flock. Not wanting to give it a chance to get them stampeding again, I seized my chance and ran at it full-tilt, jaws parting in readiness to bite.

But the creature heard my movement, froze, turned toward me just in time to make me skid to a stop and stumble face-first to the ground. I struggled up immediately, choking on dirt and spitting it out of my dry mouth, to stare in terror at the creature that had just revealed itself to the moonlight. The black wolf. Back from wherever he'd been these many months, probably just waiting for this chance. How had he gotten back in when I'd watched so hard? Now I could see the wolf better that I had before, and if I was scared last time, I didn't know the half of it.

The white eyes glinted in the moonlight, as did the white tail, which I now realized was the flash I had seen as the wolf ran off the first time. It looked like he'd dipped his tail in a can of luminous white paint. The rest of him was blacker than the darkest night. It was weird that such extreme light and darkness should exist in one creature. If wasn't so terrible and otherworldly, and if he hadn't been threatening my sheep, I might even have thought he was beautiful. But "might" is the operative word here. As it was, I felt nothing but fear and disbelief, and I thought nothing, period. I was frozen. He was so big, bigger than I remembered him and much bigger than me. How could I fight something like that? This was no wildcat, but something beyond all nature. As I stood there staring, the wolf fixed his eyes on mine and slowly, slowly drew back his lips in a mocking grin, smelling my fear. His tongue lolled out as he stood up tall to make himself look even bigger. I still couldn't move, not even to put my tail between my legs and tremble.

Then, quick as the wind, he whirled back toward the sheep and ran at them, jumping just a few feet shy of them and soaring over the remaining distance to land smack in the middle of the flock. The relative quiet of the past few moments was broken as a ewe suddenly cried out in an ear-wrenching bleat that was almost a shriek. It all happened so fast that even the other sheep were a few nanoseconds slow to react, but once they realized what was going on, the stampede began all over again. With the wolf's paralyzing stare gone (he used my own trick against me, dammit!) that cry was all I needed to shock my body back into action. I shot forward after the wolf, shouldering my way through the crush of animals and leaping over the wooly backs of those who wouldn't move.

Up against the fence, a horrible sight met my eyes. The ram was limping toward me on three legs, favoring his left hind which had a huge, bleeding gash in it, and just beyond him the torn body of the ewe lay in the dust with the black wolf standing over it. Blood was everywhere, staining the fence, the ground, the white wool. It dripped from the grinning jaws of the wolf, who only stared at me as I approached. I dodged around the poor ram; he had failed to protect his ewe and I knew he was disgraced. I fully intended to get revenge for him and for myself. This was the first time a sheep had died on my watch and I was raging mad now. Anger drove the fear to a distant corner of my heart so that even the wolf's white stare didn't stop me now.

He didn't move till I was almost on top of him. Then he darted around me and I whirled, slipping in the slick sheep's blood, to follow him. Back across the pen he led me, not bothering with the sheep now but casting a glance back now and then. I barked and snarled madly, like the wolf in my dream. I was sure I would have that beast when he reached the tall fence. I wasn't sure how he'd gotten in, but there would be no way out from here. So imagine my surprise when he jumped the fence – actually jumped it! He even cleared it with inches to spare. I almost stumbled and got trampled by stampeding sheep, but I caught myself just in time and kept running. I didn't understand; that fence was _made_ so nothing could get over it, it was taller than any human or horse, and yet the wolf had sailed over as if it were nothing, while I had to use a barrel. Maybe wolf magic was real.

Just then a though occurred to me – how was _I_ going to get out? I came upon the fence without having found an answer, so in my desperation I acted on a whim and began biting at the wire below the bottom log on the fence. There was no time to dig out and this was my only chance to take care of this wolf. My lips and gums were quickly bloodied, but the mesh began to give. Looking up quickly, I saw the wolf a few feet away on the other side, standing calmly and watching me chew my own mouth to shreds. Hatred suddenly burned in my belly and I chewed harder till the wires finally snapped. The wolf took a few steps back as I thrust my nose and then my whole head through the hole I'd made. It wasn't very big, but I thought it would be enough. Apparently, the wolf knew otherwise, as he seemed completely unconcerned and just continued watching me with that maddening, mocking smile.

Sure enough, I only got half my body through the fence before I got stuck. I tore at the ground with my front paws, my claws making furrows in the dirt as I struggled to pull the rest of my body through. The cut edges of the wire ripped at my flesh, pulling out tufts of red fur and opening up cuts on my face, back, shoulders, legs, everything I managed to get through. I could feel the stinging of the wounds on my skin and in my mouth, see the dark blood coating the ground. I kept struggling for a few more minutes, still growing and snarling and drooling bloody saliva, but little by little I lost the strength lent to me by adrenaline. My struggles grew steadily weaker until I finally gave up and lay flat on the ground with half my body on each side of the fence, panting and trembling in exhaustion.

I glanced up as the black paws of the wolf appeared in my line of vision. He had waited patiently, and I saw that he was standing over me now. His grin was gone but the white fire in his eyes showed his contempt plainly enough. I glared back with my own yellow fire, willing strength to return to my bleeding limbs so I could get out of here and kill that monster. But I was just too weak. I could only watch as the wolf suddenly threw back his head and voiced a bone-chilling, triumphant howl into the night sky. I shivered.

I barely thought about what I did next. The wolf's gaze was off me now and I was angry and embarrassed, longing for revenge. So the moment the shiver caused by his howl released me, I called up my remaining strength and shot my head forward, latching onto the wolf's right foreleg with my aching, bleeding teeth and biting down as hard as I could. The wolf broke off his howling with a yelp, jerking his leg out of my jaws and retreating a few steps. He glared at me with even more hatred than before, but I didn't care. Now it was my turn to grin.

"Fool," growled the wolf. It was the first time I had heard him speak. His voice was deep and smooth, reminding me a bit of thunder or a rushing river. It was a nice voice, but the anger in it and my hatred of its owner sort of ruined its beauty.

"You're the fool," I retorted in a voice shaky from exhaustion. "Making all that noise will bring the humans. The farmer will kill you with his gun, and then they'll burn your carcass in the fields. You shouldn't have come back." I tried to sound braver than I felt. In reality, I was just trying to steel myself for the death blow I was sure was coming.

"Don't count too much on your precious humans," he said as he licked his wound, not letting any blood fall on the ground. "They're stirring even now, but I'll be long gone before they get here. The question is whether or not _you_ will be here. Things will be much easier if you come with me now of your own free will."

This was too much. "You think I'm _going_ somewhere with you? Quit fooling around and just kill me already, if you're going to." I growled harshly at the wolf. He just looked at me disgustedly and said, "I'm not going to kill you . . . . You really don't remember a thing, do you? It never occurred to me that these humans would possess you so completely; you're even willing to die for them now. I wonder if you'd do as much for your own kin."

"They are my kin, you bastard," I said, "and I would do anything for them."

"So I've seen," he answered dryly. "It's been absolute torture watching you these past few months. You're more of a dog than that _dog_, for the love of the Moon! But that will soon be remedied. Maybe you insist on doing this the hard way, but I've already set the wheels in motion and I have only to sit back and wait." As he spoke, the wolf edged toward the shadows by the nearest building, and with one last glare and a swish of his white tail, he melted into the shadows and was gone.

I stared in bewilderment. He had just disappeared, there one moment and gone the next! I felt a sudden wave of nausea sweep over me and I rested my head on the ground for a minute to wait for it to pass. That wolf had been watching me! But why? And he talked weird, almost like he knew me, like he was disappointed in me. He expected me to go somewhere. No, I must've heard wrong; none of that made sense. I had nothing to do with wolves unless they came onto my turf, and they had nothing to do with me. He had wanted my sheep, that's all, same as the lynxes and foxes, only this wolf had managed to get one. Oh, the guilt!

At that moment, shouts and loud, resounding barks met my ears. They were coming – the farmer, Michiru, a couple of farmhands, and even old Thorny. The wolf's howl had brought them. Relief that help was coming and exhaustion from physical activity and blood loss finally overwhelmed my troubled mind, so that as I watched my family approach, everything began to spin, get blurry, and then fade completely as I fainted dead away.


	6. Gravity

A/N: Okay, here we are. The last chapter before the WR guys show up! I can't wait, and that's why this chapter is so damn long – I wanted to just get all the rest of this up here so we can get right to the good stuff next chapter. So please bear with me and _review_! Also, the chapter title has a double meaning – can you figure it out?

**Moon's Herald**

Chapter 5: Gravity

About a half an hour later, I came to in a small, enclosed space which was so dark that I felt the walls around me more than I saw them. There was an overwhelming smell of rust and oil, with a bit of paint mixed in. I tried to lift my head and look around, but the movement caused a splitting pain in my head and I relaxed back onto the floor. My skin still stung from the cuts and my mouth felt raw. I could taste blood on my tongue, mine and someone else's . . . the wolf's!

The memories came rushing back and I groaned. For a moment I had actually forgotten and thought I was having a nightmare. I had thought I was waking up in my usual spot in the house, safe and warm. But it was cold, and the house never smelled or felt like this. Where was I? I could just barely make out a few dark, hulking shapes nearby, but they told me nothing. I had to get up.

Bracing myself for the pain, I lifted my head, rolled onto my stomach, and raised myself little by little to a sitting position. I took my time, as even the smallest movement was unbearable. I could just feel my scabbed-over wounds reopening and bleeding anew and I cringed, wondering why I still felt so dirty and why there didn't seem to be any bandages on my body. However, I was a bit distracted in the next moment when I realized that from this new angle, I could see some tiny cracks in the walls that let in a faint light. I put my eye up to one, and through it I saw a window lit from within, with a few human silhouettes moving around behind the curtains. The window was only a few feet away and set in a white wall.

And just like that, I knew where I was. I was in the old tool shed out behind the house. The window I saw through the crack was the kitchen window; I recognized the curtains. I pulled back from the hole, feeling very puzzled. Why was I out here instead of on my pillow, resting and recovering from my wounds? Suddenly, my thoughts broke off, because as I shifted my weight I heard a strange rustling sound. When I squinted down at the floor in the dim light, I was shocked to see a rope leading from my chain collar to one of the dark shapes – the rusty remains of an old lawn mower, I realized. I was tied up! I moved again and the rope rustled once more, pulling a bit taut as I backed away.

I was definitely tied, but it made no sense; my humans hadn't tied me up since I was a pup. And they had definitely never put me in the tool shed. Something was very wrong. I started to pace and whimper with growing distress. Small spaces didn't usually bother me, but now I was starting to feel scared and claustrophobic. I tugged at the rope as my mind began to race with all kinds of wild worries – why had the humans brought me here instead of to the house when I was so badly hurt? Did someone beat the farmer to me and put me here? Maybe my family didn't know where I was.

I started barking and scratching the walls, hoping that if the humans heard they would come to investigate and rescue me. The walls shook a little as I scratched harder and harder, making the tools and paint cans on the shelves and hooks over me rattle. I stopped at that, afraid they'd fall on my head, and let out a tremulous howl of distress. Where was everybody? The human shapes behind the curtains paused for only a moment before returning to what they were doing. If they heard me and paid so little attention, they couldn't be _my_ humans; maybe they were intruders. With panic rising in me, I let out howl after howl for a good five minutes before I was cut off by a very familiar and welcome voice coming from right outside the back wall, behind the mower.

"Shhh," hissed the voice. "Shut up, Red! You're scarin' 'em and makin' it worse."

"Thorny!" I cried, eagerly clambering over the mower and pressing my eye against another crack in the wall. I could see his brown eyes, ringed by gray fur, looking at me worriedly.

"Hi, Foxie," said another, smaller voice from Thorny's left and lower to the ground than I could see.

"Tsuta?" I gasped. "What are you doing here? You're an indoor cat."

"They won't miss her with all the commotion goin' on in there," Thorny assured me, sounding tired. "We've got _big_ trouble."

"Tell me about it," I said. "I'm all torn to ribbons, and what am I doing in _here_? Is the farmer okay? And Michiru? Because I think someone might've broken into the house while I was knocked out and -"

"No, no, girl. No one broke in and the humans are all fine. In fact, that's actually what we have to worry about. The danger's from _them_."

"Say what?" I blinked.

"They're mad at you, Foxie," the kitten piped up. "They brought home a dead, torn-up sheep on the flatbed truck and they said you killed it."

"WHAT?" I think my heart almost stopped at that moment, and in any case I felt like retching.

Tsuta continued unperturbed. "And also, the ram's hurt real bad and they may have to kill him, too. So now they're all in the kitchen talking about what to do with you, and Michiru's upset but he's trying to stick up for you and get them to give you another chance. But the lady says you're too dangerous and you might have babies, so they put you in here."

"Not _babies_, you fool cat," Thorny growled.

"Thorny," I whimpered, "I didn't kill anything! The black wolf came back and he did it; I did try to kill him, but he got away . . ." I trailed off to concentrate on fighting off the sickness that was rising in my throat.

"I know," said Thorny soothingly, "I know you, Red, and I believe you. I know how you care for those sheep. Trained you to be that way myself, didn't I?"

"But Mr. Thorny said it's gonna be hard to prove anything without a witless, and nobody's seen the big black dog but you," Tsuta put in.

"That's _witness_," Thorny sighed, "and will you please hush up for once; you're not helping at all."

"The sheep saw it," I said, feeling a little hope rise in my chest. But Thorny sadly shook his head and replied, "No, Red, I mean human witnesses. It's the humans who hold the power on this farm, and anything we animals know about you or what happened is no use unless they know it, too. All they have to go on is the material evidence left around the farmyard, and it all seems to point to you."

"But there must be some way-"

"There isn't," said the old dog. "Humans don't even believe in wolves, remember. They found you stuck in the fence, obviously desperate to escape, covered in blood like both the fence and the carcass. There were bloody paw prints in the pen, those of what they would consider a huge dog, and none outside the fence to indicate that you chased anything out there. I believe they're even assuming that you chewed through the fence to get _in_, and only got stuck once you were leaving."

"That's crazy!"

"Not to them. Humans are scent-deaf and trust only their eyes and the reasoning of their brains. They think you're sick, Red, that you killed an innocent animal for no reason. They think you're a danger now and unless we act fast, they'll kill you." There it was, the truth of the matter laid bluntly at my feet, and it proved to be too much for me to handle at the moment. Nausea swept over me all at once and I puked into a rusty bucket that was standing conveniently nearby in the dark shed. My friends outside didn't wait for me to recover before they started making plans.

"First thing's to get her out of there," said Thorny. "Go around to the other side and see if the door's there, cat." A few seconds later, Tsuta's lisping voice came from the opposite side of the shed. "Yup, it's here. But there's a real big lock on it, sir."

Thorny growled in frustration. "Figures. Well, I think there's a loose board on this side, but it'll take a few minutes to find it and break it off. You go and keep watch and tell me the _instant_ there's any change with the humans."

"Yessir, captain!" cried the kitten, and then I heard her run off toward the house. I almost laughed through my dizziness; even now, Tsuta was having one of her pretend games. Thorny's voice broke into my thoughts then. "Are you alright now?" he snapped. "Then don't just stand there, girl. Push on this board." He pressed on one of the boards and I saw it give. Hobbling over, I leaned my weight on the board and began pushing while Thorny squeezed his paw around into the space and pulled.

"Sorry, Thorny," I grunted, coughing because of the paint fumes, "but I'm really scared and it smells so bad in here. Are you sure all this is true? Is there really no hope?"

"Only one thing we can do now," he said, "but we gotta get you out of there first. Push!" After a few minutes of struggling with the board, it began to crack and groan as it gave way. The wood splintered as it came away from the wall with a final loud crack. Thorny threw the broken piece of wood aside as I peered through the hole into the yard, which was still illuminated by the light of the full moon. "Come on through!" the old dog urged.

Not eager to add splinter wounds to my list of injuries, I hesitated before finally crawling out of the shed. I managed not to get caught on the splintered wood and was relieved until a sudden cry from Thorny made me jump. "Hell's hounds, girl," he said, using his favorite curse, "they tied you up, too! Ugh, more time to waste." I looked around and saw the rope trailing behind me. I bent to try chewing through it, but Thorny stopped me.

"Don't," he said, "your mouth's already a wreck. Let me." I stood still, though trembling, while my teacher began gnawing the rope as close to my collar as he could get. My mind was racing. This was no dream, no nightmare. I had really been framed for this heinous crime and was staring death in the face unless Thorny's plan, whatever it was, succeeded. I had to trust him completely. I felt sick again as I thought of my beloved humans in the house, hating me and fearing me and planning my death. How could the whole world turn so upside-down in only the space of a few hours?

But it was about to get worse. When Thorny had finished with the rope, leaving only a few inches of it hanging from my collar, he stared at me intensely and said, "Now we have to talk, very quickly, before we can do anything else. There's something you should know before you leave the farm."

"LEAVE the-"

"It's the only way. All that's left for you here is an early death and a bullet in the brain. It's farm protocol, girl; kill an animal or (God forbid) a person, and you are no longer fit to live here. You're a dangerous, wild animal no better than the beasts of the forest, and they will kill you to protect themselves and their way of life."

Thorny had never spoken to me like that before. I whimpered, and if dogs could cry I would have. "But I'm not any of those things, Thorny."

"And all of us know that except the ones that matter. We all love you, Red, and none of us wants to see you die. But the only hope you have is in a place other than this."

"B-but . . . where will I go? I don't know anything about anything out there."

"You could go to Stonewall. There are stray dogs there who could show you how to get by, or maybe another human will take you in. The danger is in the woods between here and there, and the best advice I can give you for that is to be vigilant and avoid all strange animals. . . . Red, have you ever wondered about your past, before the farm?"

The sudden change of subject almost lost me, but I replied with an emphatic "No," because as far as I was concerned, my life had started the day the farmer found me, and I couldn't even remember much of that. Thorny shook his head slowly. "I thought not," he said, "and I really didn't want you to, either, at first. It seemed that you had come out of something horrible, and I didn't want you to have to think about it. But I wondered, as did my brother. Red, when the humans brought you back out of the fields, they had no idea what they were doing, but Briar and I could smell the strange, foreign scents on you. Flowers and trees from some faraway place we'd probably never even heard of, and you yourself smelt like no dog we had ever known. To this day, I don't know what those scents meant. But there was one scent on you that we both recognized immediately – that of an illness."

"I . . . I was sick?" I had known I was scrawny and malnourished back then, but not that I had had an actual illness.

"We thought you could be," said Thorny, "so we watched very closely for the whole first year you were with us; this illness can lie dormant for a long time before it ever shows itself. I knew that sickly-sweet smell right away, but it was so strong that I couldn't tell at first if it was on your breath, which would mean you were infected, or if it was just on your fur, which would mean you were near a sick animal."

I was a bit afraid to ask, but finally I peeped, "What kind of sickness was it, Thorny?"

"A terrible disease called rabies," the Border collie replied. "The symptoms are just like the ones the wolf in your dream exhibits – blind rage, the need to attack everything, foaming at the mouth, no distinction between friend or foe . . . . Rabies can be spread by just the tiniest bite or scratch from an infected animal. All kinds of animals can get it – dogs, wolves, skunks, possums, raccoons. Possibly more than that, even. The sick animals are tormented by pain so that everything is driven from their minds except hate and the need to kill. And eventually, they themselves are killed by the disease."

"That's awful!" I gasped.

"Yes," said Thorny, "and that is what the humans think you have now. That kitten got the name wrong, but she's the one who heard them say it in the first place. When she told it to me, I was reminded of your dream. It's true that I wasn't sure what the dream could mean when you first described it to me, but I had a suspicion; I just didn't say so because I didn't want to worry you."

"Well, you're worrying me now, so spit it out."

"Alright. I don't think that dream of your is just a dream, Red. I think it's a memory."

"Memory?" I asked stupidly.

"A repressed memory from your early puppyhood, before you came here. I think that seeing the black wolf shocked it out of whatever corner of your mind you stored it away in, and now it's able to find its way into your dreams."

I snorted. "No offense, Thorny, but that makes no sense. I didn't even know what a wolf was till last spring."

"You didn't _remember_, you mean. You weren't a newborn when the farmer found you. You had another home and another life before then, and I think this scene you dream about is quite real. Why else would it come back night after night? It means something. I believe that you really were confronted by this animal when you were a pup – in which case, you're very lucky to be alive – and that the memory of the wolf that almost killed you was so traumatic that you simply forgot it, along with everything else from your past."

I just stared dumbly for a moment, letting this all sink in. Thorny was wise; he always thought hard about things before he said them, so I knew this wasn't just random speculation. "I . . . _guess_ that makes sense. But wolves are so rare. Where would I have come into contact with one?"

"That, I don't know," replied my teacher, looking me in the eye. "After we realized that you were perfectly healthy, Briar and I could relax again. But he still though there was something odd about you, and while I was trying to help you get settled in on the farm, he tried to provoke you to do _something_ with his insults and beatings. I don't know what reaction he was looking for, but he died still looking; you were always such a good dog. My brother obviously had his suspicions about where you came from, but he never told them to me."

We were silent for a moment before Thorny said, "I just wanted you to know that little bit about your past, Red, because I think you have a right to know. And also, I want you to be very careful of the animals in the woods on the way to Stonewall. If you see any of them acting like the dream-wolf, don't fight. Run as fast as you can."

"I don't want to go, Thorny," I whispered shakily. "This is my home."

Thorny, eyes concerned, looked about to speak again when a piercing shout rent the night air and we both turned to see a tiny puff of calico fur bounding toward us from the house. "They're comin'! The humans are comin'!"

"How soon?" Thorny asked urgently as Tsuta skidded to a stop beside him. She looked terribly frightened, as if the gravity of the situation had finally caught up with her. "Now!" cried the kitten. "The farmer has a rifle and Michiru's cryin'! He tried to change their minds, but they won't listen. They think Foxie's too dangerous!"

"This is it, Red," said Thorny, turning to me rapidly. "You have to go now. Go through the forest behind the pasture and don't stop for anything. I'll come with you as far as the gate."

"Is Foxie leaving?" piped Tsuta.

"She has to," the old dog replied.

"I wanna go, too."

"No. Stay here and stall the humans as long as you can."

"How?"

"I don't know! Use that imagination of yours. Come on, Foxfire!" Thorny rarely used my real name, except in very serious matters, so I knew all this was for real. The old dog roughly nudged me to my feet, bumping painfully against my torn skin. The next thing I knew, we were running like the wind across the farmyard with Tsuta's tearful farewell cries echoing behind us. At the pasture gate, Thorny stopped and said, "I have to go back now and help that addle-brained kitten stall the humans. Get as far from here as you can; they'll search the woods for days after this. Just remember what I've taught you and you should be okay."

"Th-Thorny, I-" A gunshot suddenly rang out and we heard the whiz-bang sound of a bullet ricocheting off a tin pail nearby. We both started and looked to see a group of humans approaching rapidly. "They're close!" cried Thorny. "Go! Get on my back and I'll boost you over the fence. And, Red . . . make me proud." He licked my nose affectionately and bent down so I could climb on his back. When I hesitated, he growled at me impatiently and I finally jumped up and launched myself off the Border collie's back and over the fence. I would have turned to look back, but a yell and another gunshot sent me fleeing across the empty pasture.

My brain was numb with fear as I ran. I heard Thorny barking and people yelling behind me, and up ahead the fence and the dark forest were coming up fast. This fence wasn't as high as that of the sheep pen; with a running start, I knew I could jump it. And I did, sailed right over with the ease the black wolf had shown in jumping the taller fence. I landed a bit badly on my right front paw on the other side, but I quickly recovered and raced into the forest with barely a thought, my fear and bewilderment over all that had happened behind me overriding any fear I had of the woods. I ignored the screaming protests of my wounds and the utter darkness all around me, pierced by only an occasional moonbeam that managed to get through what remained of the leaves. I kept running past all of my and Michiru's childhood haunts, past the old log and the blueberry thicket, across the babbling stream and beyond everything I'd ever known.

Before long I was hopelessly lost and unbelievably tired, so I lay heavily down on the ground among the twisted roots of an old tree. My heart and body were in so much pain that I unwittingly gave ardent thanks to the moon when I felt myself slipping into blissful, forgetful sleep.

* * *

The woods seemed very quiet the next morning, with only the occasional chirp of a bird or the rustle of a beetle crawling through the fallen leaves. The sky was cloudy and everything seemed bleak, matching my mood perfectly. After rising from my sleeping place and eating some berries I found still clinging to a bush, I continued walking in the same direction I had run last night, away and away from the farm. For a second I considered going back, but the memory of the flashing rifle and the exploding gunshots turned me away once again.

As the morning whiled away and I walked as if in a daze, I had a lot of time to think. I though about all that had happened and what could happen now, about what I should do and if there was even a point in trying. In the end, I decided to follow Thorny's advice and go to Stonewall. I walked silently and cast many anxious glances over my shoulder for the black wolf or other imaginary, rabid animals that haunted my steps. About midday, I stopped for a rest by a pond and drank deeply from the cold water. Then I curled up on the bank and lay for a while, trying not to think of anything at all.

I listened to the rumbling motors of a few cars rattling by on the road nearby. I had stumbled upon the road earlier in the day and was using it to guide me to the town, though I stayed hidden in the trees a safe distance away. Suddenly, the relative quiet of the forest was upset by the sound of a snapping twig. My head shot up and I looked around, but I didn't see a soul anywhere. In spite of that, I rose quietly and dashed back into the trees and loped quickly alongside the road for another little while, head down and ears alert.

When I felt I had gone far enough, I stopped and listened again. All was still and I began to sigh in relief when – "So, we meet again," said a voice deep and smooth as a river's roar. I spun around to face the speaker, and lo and behold, the white-eyed wolf was perched on the huge root of a fallen tree nearby and grinning at me in a most annoying fashion. The daylight showed him more plainly than the moonlight did, so he didn't glow now although he still had an otherworldly beauty. And his white eyes shone with amusement now, not hatred. But that didn't change my feelings about him one bit. "You!" I growled vehemently. "You evil, loathsome, slimy, vicious CREEP! I am so sick of seeing your face! How _dare_ you come near me again?"

I would have liked to come up with a more intelligent bunch of insults, but nothing better came to mind. "My, my, Foxfire," said the wolf coolly, "I didn't know you had such a colorful vocabulary. Is that what they teach you on those human farms?"

"How do you know my name?" I asked through clenched teeth.

"I know a lot about you," he replied. "I've been watching you, remember, which I wouldn't have needed to do if you'd be a little more cooperative. But after that outburst the first night I came to get you, and after I saw that you'd never leave the humans willingly, I knew drastic measures were called for."

"Why would you want me to leave?"

"You are needed. You have a destiny to fulfill, due to a promise you made years ago. The humans were only meant to raise you until you were strong enough and until the proper time was at hand. I was ordered to fetch you back from them, because that time is now."

"What? What promise? What destiny? Ordered by whom? You can't hold me to something I don't even remember."

The wolf laughed. "Of course I can. It's much too important to let a little thing like a bad memory get in the way. But that's the humans' fault, not yours, and it will soon be fixed as I said before. I'm sorry, but I can't tell you anything more right now simply _because_ you don't remember. You're going to have to go along as best you can and regain your memories yourself. For me to tell you would be too much of a shock and I doubt you'd believe me. It's like waking a sleepwalker, you know; you shouldn't do it, it's bad for their minds." He swished his tail elegantly and added, "But that's neither here nor there at the moment; I'm just here right now to tell you not to follow this road."

That was the last straw. "The hell I'm not!" I blurted out. "I'm not getting lost again, pal. I'm going to Stonewall to find myself a new human, so you can just leave me alone before I tear your ears off! I don't trust you, I don't believe you, and I wouldn't follow your directions to save my life." The wolf just sighed and looked up at the sky. "You see what I mean?" he said to the cloudy air. "She's impossible to reason with." I took that opportunity to turn and creep away down the road, but I hadn't gotten very far when the wolf suddenly bounded in front of me, blocking my escape and locking his eyes with mine. He was so close I could smell him – clean grass and rain clouds and several other mysterious, but not unpleasant, scents I couldn't identify.

"Get out of the way," I growled in a tense voice, paralyzed by his eyes.

"But this _isn't_ the way," he said softly. "You must go _away_ from the road, into the hills. You're a very clever girl, Foxfire, but you can't fool me. You're going where I tell you whether you like it or not, and it can be painless or difficult. You choose, but I recommend you just go along quietly." We just stood there staring at each other for many minutes in a silent battle, during which even the birds and cars seemed to cease their noise and wait tensely, until I felt my head nod slightly, once, twice. The wolf grinned again and swished his tail in triumph, releasing me from his gaze. We both relaxed and I felt like a stupid sheep who'd just been tricked by a cunning shepherd, but I still had a few tricks of my own left, if I could regain my wits fast enough.

"Good girl," said the wolf. "Now follow me." He turned and took a few steps before I got my voice back enough to speak and buy myself some time. "Who . . . who are you, anyway?" I asked with an effort. The wolf stopped and looked at me over his shoulder for a moment before saying, "I have many names, but you may call me . . . Getsuei." Getsuei. Moonlight. Somehow it fit him perfectly. Having said this, Getsuei turned back around and continued on his way, obviously expecting me to follow. I hesitated a moment, torn between my desire to escape the wolf's thrall and fear over what I was about to do, but since I realized this was my only chance, I threw caution to the wind for once and jumped onto the wolf's back, sinking my teeth into his shoulder.

It wasn't one of the smartest things I've ever done, I admit, but hey, I was desperate and he wasn't just going to let me run away. I had to deal with him first. Unfortunately, this wolf was not so easy to overcome. He flipped me almost without trying onto my back and pinned me, his paws and all his weight bearing down painfully on my bleeding flesh. I twisted madly and tried to bite him, snarling as if crazed. "Let me GO!" I cried. The movement and the weight hurt me so much that I broke off snarling for a second to let out a sharp whine as my shoulder throbbed. Getsuei grinned and said, "It's always got to be the hard way with you, doesn't it? You're really in no condition for a fight."

"Let GO!" I cried again, and gathering my little remaining strength, I put all my paws under the wolf and shoved upward with all my might. I didn't realize that he was way too easy to throw off, so glad was I to be able to bite him again in the other shoulder. Getsuei yelped and struck me hard in the face with a strong forepaw so I stumbled, then turned and ran into the denser trees away from the road. I gave chase, not realizing where we were going or that my gums were bleeding and all my other wounds were open again. I chased the wolf for a great distance, dodging trees and bushes and kicking up crackling brown leaves. Sometimes I caught up to him and pounced again, and we would tumble along in a ball of teeth and claws and flying fur till one or the other broke away; other times he was a few feet in front of me, white tail like a flashing beacon, leading me on. But always we were traveling in about the same direction.

We were running alongside a huge, almost vertical rock face that rose up out of the forest floor when Getsuei effectively ended the chase by crouching and jumping, or should I say practically _flying_, all the way up to the top of the rise. I tripped and went rolling through the leaves before struggling to my feet and glaring up at him. It was ridiculous. How had he done that? The wall was easily as high as the farmhouse stacked on top of itself three or four times. More wolf magic? "Hey," I shouted up at him, hobbling over so I was below the wolf and favoring my right front paw, which had gotten hurt when I fell, "get back down here!"

Getsuei just stood looking down at me smugly. "Gotcha," he called down.

"Oh yeah?" I shouted, voice echoing off the rock. "You just wait. That wall's not so steep, I can climb it! I'll be up there in, uh . . . a few minutes, so get ready to have your ass kicked!"

I started toward the wall when Getsuei's voice made me pause. "Uh-uh, I wouldn't come any closer if I were you. Just stand there and wait. You'll be sorry if you don't."

"Really?" I asked sarcastically.

"Really."

"Well, sorry to disappoint you, but I don't care for your threats. You may have a height advantage, and you can come down here and kill me if you want to, but I'm gonna take at least a few chunks outta your flea-bitten hide before I go!"

"For the last time, I'm _not_ going to kill you." He should've realized he could say that all he wanted and I still wouldn't believe him. "And I really think you should reconsider."

"Oh, you do, huh?" I yelled up at him. "Well, too bad!" I ran toward the wall on three legs, fully intending to claw my way up there if it killed me (and it probably would), when ten feet away from it, I felt the ground give slightly under my paws and groan under my weight. I stopped dead still with shock written all over my face and Getsuei began to laugh. "You bastard!" I yelled at him. "What did you do!"

"I warned you, is what I did," he replied. "I told you to take the easy way, Foxfire, but you didn't listen." He swished his tail again and cocked his head at me. "Well, my work here is done for now. See you later."

"Don't you dare leave me here, you . . . you," I sputtered, trailing off as the black wolf seemed to dissolve into a cloud of smoke before my eyes and was blown away by the wind. Don't ask me how that's possible; I'm just saying what I saw. In any case, I was now alone. I continued to stare dumbly at the spot where the wolf had been until the ground suddenly gave way a little more with a louder groan. My gaze snapped down to the ground and I saw how it dipped and shuddered. I stood tense and still, but it wouldn't do any good.

"Shit," I said simply, and a moment later the earth gave way completely and I was falling among a cloud of debris to my death. That damn wolf had tricked me again.


	7. A Strange Pack

A/N: Hey! Yes, I'm still alive. Sorry about the delay, but this chapter needed a lot of work (I redid it like twice), and I've had tons of homework to do. I putthe homeworkoff as long as I could, but when the grades start slipping, that's a sign that you have to start studying! Thanks to all my reviewers, and if you're still reading this and have had patience with me, you have my utmost gratitude. bows deeply to readers Okay, now here's the chapter you've been waiting for. Hope it doesn't disappoint!

**Moon's Herald**

Chapter 6: A Strange Pack

The sky had already turned red with the sunset and faded into the blackness of night before I really gave up hope. There wasn't even the consolation of the moon to buoy my spirits that night; the thick, dark clouds covered the whole sky and blotted out even the smallest star. When I saw the last of the light go out, my heart sank and I finally lowered my head. I had been howling for hours, ever since I fell into the pit, keeping myself going by feeding on my anger toward Getsuei and hoping against hope that either he would come back and tell me it had all been a sick joke, or that someone else would hear and come to save me. But once night fell, I knew how foolish it was to expect to find help in the middle of a forest, miles from any habitation, and in the middle of the night.

I lay my head on my paws and stared up at the tiny patch of sky above my prison, noisily sucking air into my desperate, aching lungs. My voice was gone now, anyway, and my body hurt too much to move. My chain collar, which had gotten caught on a root as I fell, no longer fit correctly; it squeezed and pinched and made it even harder to breathe than did the dirt floating in the air. If I didn't starve first, there was a good chance I'd suffocate, or at least bleed to death. _Maybe I should just give in_, I thought at length, as the utter hopelessness of my situation finally took hold. _At least then I can rest, and all the pain will stop_. The longer I mulled over this thought, the more it seemed like the only thing left to do.

Finally, with my mind made up, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath (as well as I could) and let go of everything that tied me to the world – all the anger and hatred I felt for Getsuei and his kind; the sadness I felt when I thought of the humans and my lost home; the fear of the unknown. I held each thought, memory, and feeling for a moment, contemplating it as if it were a palpable thing, turning it this way and that and admiring or reviling it, and then I simply gave it up and let it float away into nothing. I would empty myself of all this baggage and then I would go to sleep, a sleep so deep that no dream or nightmare would penetrate and nothing would wake me. That wouldn't be so bad, not to feel anymore.

My mind drifted to old memories as I felt myself sinking into the comforting, forgiving darkness; happy memories of the farm and my younger days, when Michiru and I played under the blossoming trees. _If I could keep just one thing_, I thought groggily, _it would be this memory, this feeling of happiness and the love of my best friend_. But in the end even this thought flew away and was gone, taking the memory with it. I was tired, tired of everything. I no longer even felt like hating wolves, or loving humans, or even caring about myself; it all took too much energy and caused too much pain.

It's kind of scary now to remember the depths to which I sank that night, how once I started spiraling downward I didn't seem able to stop, didn't _want_ to stop. It's just that my life had never been so painful or so complicated before; I didn't know how to feel what I was feeling or how to fight my way back from the brink of despair. All I wanted then was to stop my suffering, and any way would do. So instead of fighting, I decided to jump right in with my eyes closed. Luckily for me, however, I wasn't to succeed in my goal. I came very close, but just as I was about to lose consciousness, I heard a faint sound from above – a voice calling.

At first I thought it was just another memory drifting by, or maybe one of those winged creatures the humans said carry the dead away to the next world, but as the call came again and again, ever closer, I realized that it came from a living creature. Each call woke me up a little bit more, pulled me a little farther away from the brink, until my ears twitched and my eyes opened and I raised my head ever-so-slightly to look at the sky, disturbing the thin layer of dirt that had settled in my fur as I lay motionless for hours. Dawn was starting; the black sky was just a shade paler, but I could still tell. _Wow, I've been dying for a long time,_ I thought absently, feeling as if in a dream. My thoughts were light and scattered and made no sense, and I stared wonderingly at the sky as if I'd never seen it before. Then the voice called once more and my ears slowly swiveled toward it. I was curious in spite of myself; who would be out here at this time of day?

"Over here, you guys!" shouted the voice, which sounded like a young boy's. "The howls came from this way. Hurry!"

"Are you sure you didn't just imagine it, runt?" asked an older-sounding male voice. "Maybe the wind's just playing tricks on you."

"No way, Hige, I heard it!" insisted the younger boy.

"Hmph, yeah, you heard it hours ago," said someone else with a very deep, gruff voice. "We've let you follow those stupid howls all night and we haven't found anything. If anyone _was_ out here, we'd have found them already. And besides, there haven't been any howls since sunset, so whoever it was has probably died by now, or else gotten out of their own mess."

"I know, Tsume, but -"

"So it's time we moved on," interrupted the gruff person, Tsume. "We've wasted a whole night on this, Toboe, and Paradise isn't getting any closer." There was a moment's pause before he added, "And what are _you_ looking at, chubby?" The second voice I'd heard, the one belonging to someone called Hige, said with a laugh, "Oh, nothing, Tsume. I was just thinking that you're starting to sound a lot like Kiba, with the Paradise thing and all. You never cared so much before." A low growl followed this comment, probably from Tsume, but Hige ignored it and kept right on talking. "By the way, what do _you_ think we should do, Kiba? I've got no problem with letting the runt search a while longer, if it makes him feel better. In fact, I don't think anyone but Tsume minds it. How do you vote?"

There was silence again for a minute, and then a new voice spoke, one that was as deep and smooth as Getsuei's but a lot less scary and annoying. It was more like a summer wind than a river. Disoriented as I was, I did manage to think how much I liked that voice. "It couldn't hurt, I guess," said this voice. "As long as we get going by sunrise, that is." A second later, Toboe burst out joyously, "Oh, _thank_ you, Kiba!" There was a lot of scuffling and I thought that the kid might be running around like Tsuta sometimes did when she was excited. "I just know I can find whoever was calling by sunrise, and then we can give them some he – WHOA!"

Just as the shout came, a huge cloud of dirt, stones and other debris fell down on me from the lip of the pit with a loud clattering sound. The dirt filled my nostrils and I began to cough and wheeze terribly as a silhouetted figure teetered on the edge of the pit above me, before regaining its balance and disappearing from view. Squinting up through the dust, I could just make out a head with two triangular ears on top and a long muzzle before the figure withdrew. This failed to make any impression on me at all, however, because my mind felt numb with pain and fatigue. It never occurred to me to think of who or what these people could be; I just thought of them as people for the moment. I had a feeling they'd soon go away and leave me anyhow, so what did it matter?

"Damn it, Toboe," growled Tsume, "watch where you're going!"

"S-sorry, Tsume," the kid replied shakily, panting in relief. After a few moments, he said, "Hey, this pit . . . maybe . . ." Next thing I knew, someone's head was stuck into the hole and there was a loud sound of sniffing. Not caring who heard, I gagged again on some dirt I had inhaled and tried to spit it up, completely ignoring everything else, even when the ears of the figure above me pricked up and Toboe cried excitedly, "I knew it! I knew someone was in trouble! Look, guys, there's someone in this pit! A wolf, by the scent; a girl wolf."

"Girl?" asked Hige. "Hey, move over and let me have a look at – OUCH! Sorry, Blue, I was just kidding. I swear!" Apparently there were more people up there than just the four guys who had been talking. Toboe called down to me, "Hey down there! Are you okay? Can you jump out?" I flattened my ears against my head and called back hoarsely, "Not so loud!"

"Sorry!" he cried, sounding flustered. "I . . . uh, was it you I heard calling for help last night?"

"Probably," I replied lethargically. "As far as I know, there's nobody else out here. I figured out as much when no one answered. But it's okay. I don't mind it anymore if I have to die. I had a long time to think about it, and it doesn't seem so scary if you just accept it."

"Wait a minute!" said Toboe indignantly. "We're here now, so you're not gonna die. I'm sorry it took so long to find you, but now we'll get you out of there. Right guys? . . . Guys?" Nobody answered for a few seconds, but then Hige said, "Well, sure, runt. We can't leave a lady in a place like this." Footsteps came closer to the pit's edge and another shape like Toboe's, only wider, appeared. "The question is _how_ to do it. This pit looks really deep, and I smell a lot of blood. If she's that injured, we have to be really careful about how we move her."

"Maybe Kiba could carry her out on his back," suggested Toboe.

"Nope," said Hige, "she'd probably fall off. You got any bright ideas, Kiba?"

"Grrr," said Tsume testily, "I'm not sure we should rush into this. We don't know anything about this wolf. She may not be someone we want to help." This comment was met by several outraged protestations from Toboe and Hige, along the line of how could he be so heartless, and they were just going to get me out of the pit, not ask me to join up with them. They both talked at once and Tsume yelled back at them until Kiba spoke again, shutting them up. "Calm down, guys. I'll handle this, and then we'll go from there, okay? Now stand back." There was some scuffling and a snap, after which Kiba said softly, "Wait here, Cheza," and came up to the pit. _Cheza?_ I thought. _Geez, just how many of them are up there?_

"Just hang in there, okay?" called Toboe to me. "Kiba's gonna help you!"

"Sure," I replied in a monotone, "do what you want." I had absolutely no faith that these random strangers would be able to do anything for me, and I didn't care. Let them try what they would; nothing short of a crane was going to be able to get me out of such a deep hole. I had accepted it, and they would too. When they got bored enough with their fruitless attempts, they'd go away and I could sleep in peace. Just then, another shape appeared above me. "Listen," Kiba called down, "back up as much as you can. I'm gonna jump down and get you."

"I can't," I said tiredly. "I haven't moved since I fell down here. I hurt too much, and I can't feel my leg." My right front leg had been through so much the past couple of days – jumping the fence, falling down while chasing Getsuei, and now falling down this pit – that it seemed to have given out. Kiba mumbled to himself, "Okay, then . . .," and I saw him lean down into the hole and look around a bit before I closed my eyes again in exhaustion. Next thing I knew, there was a loud thump and a rush of air as a warm, furry body fell down into the pit beside me, landing lightly on its feet. It was too dark for me to see anything but a pair of bright yellow eyes gleaming in the faint dawn light, but I could smell him now. Wild flowers, fresh wind, all kinds of lovely scents were in his fur, but . . . oh no. Oh _no_.

I stiffened up a bit as he came close to me and wrapped something rope-like around my chest, shoulders, and hips to form a makeshift harness. I was trying my hardest not to freak out as all my thoughts, fears, and memories – which had apparently _not_ gone off to oblivion after all – came rushing back to me all at once and jolted every last ounce of numbness from my mind. How could I have possibly ignored the shapes of those silhouettes, the oddness of their traveling in the woods at night? How could I not have wondered what they were? The scent was clear – this Kiba guy was definitely a wolf, and as I couldn't see any creature being friends with a wolf but another wolf, I figured that all his friends up on the surface must be wolves, too. Somehow in the course of the past six months, these fabled creatures that hardly anyone knew or talked about had become as unavoidable as cockroaches. _Holy crap_, I moaned inwardly, _I'm freakin' cursed_.

While I trembled and kept my eyes carefully turned away, Kiba finished tying the knots in the harness and assured me that I'd be out in a minute, before backing off and jumping effortlessly out of the pit. Just like Getsuei. Damn, could they _all_ do that? There was a length of rope going from my harness up and out of the hole that Kiba had carried out with him. That part of the rope bounced and jerked a little and I heard voices and noise from up above. When the rope finally stilled, Kiba said, "Okay, everyone pull together on three."

"_I'm_ not helping," grumbled Tsume, but a moment later he added with a loud, exasperated sigh, "_Stop_ it, Toboe! . . . Grr, damn those puppy eyes. Fine, but don't blame me when something goes wrong. I already told you this is a bad idea." Then Kiba counted to three and the rope suddenly went taut. I was dangling in the air in an instant with just the tips of my toes touching the earth. There were a couple more jerks and I rose a few inches before sinking back down a bit. The harness was murder on my torn body and I couldn't suppress a whimper. "Try climbing up the side!" Tsume yelled after a few minutes' struggle, so with a grunt, I shifted my weight so I swung around to face the wall and started clawing at it with my aching paws. The pulling on the harness from above renewed, stronger this time, and between all our efforts, I clambered out of the pit a short while later.

I crawled out on my belly and rolled onto my side, and then just lay there panting. Dirt my claws had dislodged rained back into the pit, but up here the air was blessedly fresh and clear. I didn't try to move or open my eyes or anything, just enjoyed the feel of the soft grass and the cool breeze. After a slight hesitation, during which my panting was the only sound, a sharp gasp erupted from one of the others and soft footsteps rushed to my side. Toboe's voice spoke in my ear, "Oh, what happened to you?" A warm tongue licked my wounded shoulder; I flinched at the touch, and not only because it stung. Wolf scent filled my nostrils, making me tense up again, but I didn't have the strength to move away from Toboe's ministrations. He smelled pretty young, probably not much more than a pup, and his voice was kind and concerned, but I wasn't going lower my guard because of that. In my mind, all wolves were dangerous.

"Wow, it's worse than I thought," murmured Hige from somewhere nearby. Then there was a low growl and Tsume suddenly burst out, as if he had been holding it in for ages and just couldn't do it anymore, "Get away from her, Toboe! She reeks of humans."

The pup's tongue stopped for a moment. "Tsume," he cried in a chastising tone, "that's not very nice. I think she smells good. Besides, she's really hurt and needs help, so I'm not getting away." Then he continued cleaning my wounds. I was a little confused as to whether I was being complemented or insulted just then, but I held back the indignant reply that threatened to burst forth, feeling a little annoyed that they were talking about me like I wasn't right there. Suddenly, I sensed someone else nearby and cracked an eye open, and what I saw made both my eyes open wide in surprise.

A great white wolf was looking down at me. His fur was the pure white of new fallen snow, as light as Getsuei's was dark. His eyes were that mesmerizing gold I had seen in the pit, and they were full of pride and wariness, but also kindness. His bearing radiated power and strength. The sight of him filled me with awe, and I was afraid again as I thought to wonder what these wolves would do with me now. I could only stare as the wolf bent over me and bit through the harness, which I now saw was made from a long vine, with only a few quick snaps of his jaws. When he threw the remains away, I saw something shiny and silvery go with them, and I gasped. "My . . . my collar!" I cried sadly as my last piece of my former life disappeared into the brush. "You broke it!"

"It was choking you," the white wolf said simply, and I knew from his soft voice that this was Kiba. A disdainful grunt came from nearby. "Oh shit, not one of those," Tsume sneered. "Bet someone's been keeping her as a pet dog, for her to get that upset over a damn collar. That's what happens when you deal with humans; all but the strongest become willing slaves." Toboe cried out in protest at that, and Hige remarked sarcastically, "Strong like who? _You_?" Kiba growled warningly at a tough-looking gray wolf with a cross-shaped scar on his chest. I also snarled at Tsume and started to rise, but Toboe pushed me back down. "You shouldn't try to move yet," said the pup worriedly. "Don't mind Tsume; he never trusts strangers, and he says stuff like that to everyone anyway."

"_No_body talks about my humans that way," I grumbled, "especially when you don't even know them."

"I don't _need_ to know them," the gray wolf started, baring his fangs, but a glare from Kiba shut him up.

"H-hey," said Toboe said to me nervously, trying to change the subject and avert a fight, "I used to live with humans, too. I really liked it." I only grunted dismissively in reply. What was the point of all this? Of course I had been with humans; that's where dogs belonged, not out here with creatures like these. I wished they'd cut the useless chatter and let me go already. I was at my wit's end, having so many wolves so close to me. I didn't so much as think about fighting them as I had Getsuei. I just wanted to run away. "My name's Toboe, by the way," continued the pup amiably. I turned slightly to get a better look at him. He was all legs and quite skinny, with rusty reddish-brown fur and yellow eyes and four metal bracelets around his right front leg. "Um, what's your name?"

"Foxfire," I answered automatically, then bit my tongue as I realized it was probably not a good idea to give your name to someone you considered the enemy. But it was too late. Toboe was already wagging his tail happily and saying, "That's a pretty name, perfect for a wolf with red fur." _That_ got my attention. I turned a confused stare on the pup and said, "I'm not a wolf," snorting through my nose at such a stupid idea. I mean, sure he was a pup, but didn't he even know the difference between a dog and a wolf yet? Even I had known that without ever having heard of wolves. But Toboe just stared back.

"What are you talking about? Of course you are," he said. "Your scent . . . oh, wait a sec! You were joking weren't you?" The pup grinned and stuck out his tongue comically. "Heh, sorry. Sometimes I'm a little slow with stuff like that. Just ask Hige!" Hige, a rather chubby wolf with sandy brown fur and a leather collar around his neck, immediately called out agreement, but I just answered seriously, "But I wasn't joking. If you think I smell like a wolf, it's probably because there was one here earlier and we fought. That's how I ended up in the pit." Toboe stopped grinning and lowered his tail, looking at me uncomfortably like he couldn't think of what to say next. But Kiba knew. He spoke up so suddenly that I started and looked up into those golden eyes, which were regarding me closely. "Well, if you're not a wolf, what are you?" he asked in a tone that suggested he was either just curious or testing me on something. I became suddenly flustered and had to think for a moment before I could grasp the answer out of my whirling thoughts. "A dog," I said at last.

"Ha! You see?" snapped Tsume. "Brainwashed." Kiba didn't say anything at all. He just looked at me for another moment and a sudden hardness clouded his eyes, a coldness that hadn't been there before, and then he turned and padded away over the leafy ground to sit beside two shadowy shapes I hadn't seen before. His reaction puzzled me; I had no idea what I'd done wrong or why I suddenly felt so bad about having done it. Why was this immense feeling of guilt building up in my chest? I didn't owe these wolves anything. They were just vicious killers, strangers to me . . . but then, they had just saved my life, though I couldn't guess why. I shot a nervous glance at Toboe, who came close to me and whispered in my ear, "Kiba puts a lot of importance on having pride as a wolf. But, um, if you're not one, at least you were honest, right? I guess we could've made a mistake." He didn't sound too convinced about it, though. Then he stepped back quickly and said a bit louder, "Want to try getting up now, Foxfire? I got the bleeding to stop as much as I could." I nodded wearily in response.

Toboe let me lean against his side as I shakily stood up. I was a bit unsteady on my feet and lightheaded to boot. It was weird; I knew how dangerous wolves were, what they were capable of, and I was scared shitless being surrounded by them right now, weak and at their mercy. And yet this pup was being so nice to me; I had never expected that of any wolf. That's the only explanation I can think of for why I suddenly found myself croaking hoarsely to the pup, "You can call me Foxie for short, if you want to." I almost kicked myself for that one, too, but again it was too late. Toboe wagged his tail happily when I shared my nickname with him, but apparently he wasn't the only one who heard.

"Hey, Foxie. I'm Hige," said Hige in a tone that made it sound like a bad pickup line, even though it was only my name. The moment he said it, one of the shadowy shapes near Kiba shot out from the shade of a tree and cuffed Hige hard on the shoulder. It was a big black wolf, and it scared me to death until I realized that it was a female with bright blue eyes and was therefore _not_ Getsuei. "Ow!" Hige wailed. "Will ya stop that already? I didn't mean it like that." Then he sighed and gesture to the female beside him and added, "By the way, this is Blue."

"Hi," said Blue, sitting down next to Hige and affectionately licking his ear in apology. I shyly said hello back to her. She and Hige were obviously a couple by the way she was acting, and I sure didn't want to make her mad at _me_. Then I happened to look at the other shape under the tree with Kiba, and since the sun was now starting to peek over the horizon, it was easy for me to see the strangest sight that had ever met my eyes. Yes, stranger even than Getsuei. And never mind that she was a human hanging out with a pack of wolves; that wasn't even the weird part. After all, I didn't know so much about wolves, but I knew humans, and I knew how humans were supposed to look. The girl I now saw looked _nothing_ like that.

She had short pink hair and large, luminous pink eyes set in the most serene and angelic face I had ever seen. She wore a short pink cape with a hood and pink boots. Besides that, she also seemed to be wearing a skin-tight white cat suit under the cape. The girl sat there beside Kiba, looking at me with open, friendly eyes. Her scent was what gave me pause more than anything else – there was no human in it at all. She smelled just like flowers, though no kind I could name, and it was the most heavenly scent you could imagine. It wasn't perfume, either; the farmer's wife had perfume, and I knew that no artificial scent could ever hope to match this. This was the real thing. I stared, dumbfounded and uncomprehending, until I finally managed to utter a squeaky, "W-who - ?" I couldn't for the life of me figure out what that girl was or why she made my insides feel like they were turning to jelly (in a good way).

"That's Cheza," Toboe said proudly. "She's the Flower Maiden and she's leading us to Paradise! Wanna come?"

"Hmph," growled Tsume suddenly, " she doesn't need to know our business, Toboe."

"She has as much a right to know as we do," the pup replied.

"Paradise isn't for _dogs_," the gray wolf said with a glare at me, "so she doesn't." Blue and Hige both started to growl at Tsume just then, but he continued, "Now that we've finished with the runt's little rescue mission and the sun's coming up, it's time to get going. Come on, Kiba."

"Wait!" cried Toboe. "We can't just leave Foxie here like this. We should at least help her to a safe place."

"No such thing," Tsume muttered.

"Is there anywhere you'd like us to take you, Foxie?" Toboe asked me. I almost said no – the last thing I wanted to do was go anywhere with these wolves – but then I realized I had to look at the situation realistically. At the best of times, I had no idea what I was doing out here in the world, being a farm dog through and through. As it was, I was terribly injured and completely lost, and really had little hope of surviving on my own. I had an opportunity to get some help now, and if I turned it away, I was probably as good as dead. Maybe if I could bring myself to stand the company of these animals for just a short time, I could get within range of a human habitation again and make myself a new, wolf-free life. Plus, Getsuei never seemed to show up unless I was alone, so maybe the arrangement would have the added benefit of keeping him out of my fur. So although it was really against my better judgment, I answered, "Well, there's supposed to be a town called Stonewall somewhere around here, but I got lost and I don't remember where the road is."

"Do you know the general direction it's in?" asked Kiba. I looked around and located the rock face onto which Getsuei had jumped, and using that as a reference point, I tried to mentally retrace my flight after the white-eyed wolf that afternoon. It was hard, but once I thought I had a pretty close guess, I pointed the way with my nose. "There, I think."

"Okay," said Kiba. "That's not too far out of our way. You can travel with us till we reach your town."

"This is a mistake," growled Tsume, but no one paid attention. Kiba started off with Cheza (who still completely baffled me) at his side, and I moved to follow, telling myself repeatedly not to freak out because this was just going to be temporary. But the moment I took my weight off of Toboe, I collapsed in a heap on the ground. Toboe cried out in distress, and Kiba and the girl came back. "Oh, I'm so sorry!" Toboe gasped. "I forgot about your leg!"

"She's too weak to keep up," said Tsume scornfully.

"Too bad the full moon's over, or you'd heal in no time," remarked Blue.

"Want me to carry you?" Hige asked, earning a dirty look from Blue. I gasped and tried to get up, mumbling apologies and saying I was okay, but every time I tried to rise, I fell back down into the leaves. Tsume was right; there was no way I could get to Stonewall in this condition. I was still doomed. But then a new voice spoke, soft and sweet like music floating on a gentle wind. "Wait," said Cheza, "this one can help."

She knelt down next to me and, before I could think or react, she put her hands on me and began gently stroking over my wounds. An odd but delicious tingling began all over my skin, and I squirmed slightly and half-whimpered, half-giggled in joy. The pain in my head and body, the fear and uncertainty, all ebbed away. With my eyes squeezed shut, all I could see were dancing rainbow colors. All I could smell were sweet flowers.

All too soon, it was over and the girl backed away. I opened my eyes and sat up with a disappointed whine. What had just happened? But then I noticed that for the first time in days, there was no stinging pain anywhere in my body. My teeth no longer ached or felt about to fall out. My right front leg held my weight as well as it ever had, maybe better. In fact, I felt brand new! I stood and took a few experimental steps, then jumped, then ran joyously in circles, chasing my tail and giggling. I stopped facing Cheza, tongue lolling and tail wagging wildly. I had completely forgotten the wolves; Tsume looked disgusted, but the others were staring in wonder.

"Better?" Cheza asked with a smile.

"Oh, I've never felt this good in my whole life! Thank you!" I cried. Then, sobering up, I added in an awestruck voice, "What _are_ you?" The girl didn't answer, just smiled sweetly at me as Toboe, who had been examining me closely, said, "Wow, Foxie! All your wounds are gone and the fur's even grown back over them. No scars, either. Cheza's healed me before, but it was nothing compared to that!"

"How did you do that?" I asked Cheza again, but she just patted my head before putting her hand on Kiba's shoulder and saying, "Let's go now, everyone." Then she and Kiba turned and started walking again. Tsume, Hige, and Blue followed next, and then Toboe. I stood for a moment in hesitation. It seemed like I had been in a state of constant confusion lately, and it didn't look like this was going to change anytime soon. Wolves were supposed to be just regular animals, right? Like bears or mountain lions or any of those creatures; eat, sleep, fight, reproduce – that's what made up their lives, right? I mean, let's face it; I wouldn't have done much more than that myself if the farmer hadn't decided to train me as a sheepdog.

And yet here was a pack of wolves who looked for something called Paradise (which I'd have to ask about later), hung out with a flower-girl who could heal with a touch, and basically just behaved nothing like wolves were supposed to. They had even helped a dying dog when dogs and wolves were enemies. What a strange pack! I wondered if I'd be able to stand being around them for who knew how long, till we reached the town. I reminded myself again that it was only temporary, just till I found some humans and learned to take care of myself better. Then I could hide away among the humans and maybe find the company of some normal dogs. If I could just relax awhile and go along with these guys and try not to make them angry, I should come out of this in one piece.

Toboe's voice broke into my thoughts just then. "Hey, Foxie!" he cried, turning to look back at me just as he was about to disappear over the crest of a hill. "Come on! Don't wanna get left behind, do ya?" There was a hint of playful laughter in his voice.

"Coming!" I yelled back, and I ran to catch up to the young wolf who was waiting for me. There was nothing for it; for better or for worse, I was now involved with the very creatures of my nightmares. Talk about facing you fears.


	8. A Brief Interlude

A/N: Hey again. This chapter is just a little filler/explanation thing that I figured was needed. Also, I won't be able to get the next long chapter up for a little while because I'm writing term papers (eeww). Well, since this is going to be a short chapter, I'm going to take this opportunity to thank all my reviewers and to answer one of them,

**Deranged Duck**: Hi! Sorry about any confusion I caused you with the whole harness thing, but I can explain! See, I figured that Kiba _could_ tie some knots in the vine if he kind of pinned it down under his paws and pulled it with his teeth. I'm not saying it wouldn't be awkward or that they would be very _good_ knots, but the way I imagined it, he could probably get it to do the job. Maybe that makes no sense, but it worked in my odd little mind, and it was the best way I could think of for them to get Foxfire out of the pit. I tend to think Kiba has the ability to do lots of inexplicable things, anyway – I loved that episode where he ran up a vertical glacier when he was fighting that robot! You know what I mean, right? But I'm sorry if it didn't sound right.

As for Blue being a dog, don't you worry – that's comin' up! I was going to put that in the last chapter, but it didn't seem to fit, so I decided to leave it till later. Instead I kind of hinted at it by making Hige and Blue get angry at what Tsume said, but of course no one listened to them and Foxie just didn't get it. But thank you for finally reviewing and for your helpful and thoughtful comments!

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Wolf's Rain, like I said before. I also don't own the tiny quote in this chapter – that's from "To a Mouse" by Robert Burns, I think. Anyway, here goes!

**Moon's Herald**

Chapter 7: A Brief Interlude

So that's how the story begins, how it started with me and the wolves. To understand where you're going, you have to know where you've been, after all. Never in my wildest dreams would I have guessed that I'd ever be following a pack of strange wolves through a cold forest in the middle of a still autumn morning, but thanks to an odd and utterly unexpected turn of events, there I was with a head full of more questions than I could ever hope to answer. They would all be answered in good time, I can assure you, as the rest of the story will show, but at the time I was more confused and frightened than I had ever been in my life.

Now, I ought to tell you that from this point on, the scope of our tale will widen considerably. Because although I couldn't know it back then, naïve and absorbed as I was in my own personal problems, associating with those wolves in particular was a sure way to become embroiled in something so big and dangerous that my mind wouldn't even have been able to wrap around the concept. The wolves weren't the only ones who knew about Cheza and Paradise, you see. As I was to learn, Paradise was something that everyone wanted, and there were humans as well as wolves who believed in it with all their hearts. They would do anything to get Cheza for themselves. There were certain Nobles, people supposed to be higher-born and more powerful than all other humans, who were not content with having their own paradise and wanted that of the wolves as well. There were scientists who had spent the past many years studying Cheza before the wolves got her, and who wanted her back. There was even a hunter who cared nothing for Paradise or the Flower Maiden at all, but who just hated wolves and wanted them all dead. I had never known what the world was like for wolves, but as Tsume once said to me, I would learn quick enough.

You should also know that, in order for me to be able to tell the story as completely as possible, I was told after the fact of many things that happened out of my presence. Things others did or said or thought, I can tell you all of it. How do I know this? I can't tell you that yet or it will ruin the story. Just suffice it to say for now that someone very reliable told me, someone who was there through it all saw and heard everything. This is the one who sent me. Some of the things I can tell you are important, some are only amusing, but I will tell it all because both kinds of things are important to a good story.

Hmm . . . knowing what I now know, being where I've been, I sometimes can't help heaving a little sigh and wondering how my life would've turned out if I had done what I meant to and taken off in Stonewall, gone off to the humans and left those wolves far behind me. I almost did it, too, but it wasn't to be. It's not really my fault things turned out the way they did, considering the circumstances and all, but you know . . . I wonder. I think there was a poet once who said something about "the best laid plans of mice and men . . ." – how they don't always work out, or something. Can't remember exactly. But I whatever it was, I know it's true, even for wolves.

XXXX

A/N: Okay, that's it for now! In case it was unclear, I was basically just saying that there will be some moments that cut away from Foxie, but she knows about them because someone told her. I think it will be a little more interesting if we don't have to stay where Foxie is _all_ the time. See you soon, I hope by at least by next week. Just please be patient with me, and if anyone has any questions or anything, feel free to ask!


	9. Where is Paradise?

A/N: Yeah, I'm back. This is taking forever, huh? I want to update more often, but my stupid life keeps getting in the way, darn it. But here's a new chapter anyway. It was supposed to be even longer than this, but I chopped off the last section andI'm making it a new chapter, so the ending of this one here may be a little awkward. I have a feeling this is gonna be a _long_ story, but that may not be a bad thing.

So please enjoy and R&R, because considering how many times I've redone this one (I stopped counting) I'd really like to know if it came out okay. I didn't get to write this one down first like I usually do, and sadly I don't have Tsume.hack's awesome ability to just sit down and throw out a great chapter off the top of my head. Okay, well, I'll shut up now. Get reading!

**Moon's Herald**

Chapter 8: Where is Paradise?

We were on the road to Stonewall for four days – four _long_ days. Well, actually we were only _on_ the road for three since it took the whole first day just to find it again, but you know what I mean. Traveling with the wolves was certainly a learning experience for me, though I did my best to prevent any learning at all from occurring. We did a lot of walking, slept at all odd hours of the day and night, and ate so little that it was very disorienting for someone who had spent her whole life on a strict routine. Whatever we did, I made sure to do it at least ten feet from the nearest wolf. When we walked, Kiba and Cheza usually led, followed by Tsume, then Hige and Blue, and then Toboe. I hung back behind all of them and kept silent, hoping not to be noticed. When we slept, I usually put a tree or a bush between me and them. And when we ate, I went off by myself and rooted around in the leaves for nuts or berries or anything else I could find. I didn't know how to hunt, after all, and as I'll explain later, I didn't really want to know.

I managed to get through the first day and a half this way before the pup started interfering in my solitude. That afternoon, as I was plodding along with my head down, silent as usual, I began to notice that Toboe kept looking back at me once in a while and walking a tiny bit slower each time. Scowling in annoyance because I knew what he was doing, I started dallying even more so that the distance between me and him increased, but then he would just slow to match me. Finally, when I had gotten down to practically a crawl and was having to drag my paws with excruciating deliberateness over the cold ground, the pup realized that if he ever wanted me to catch up to him, he'd better stop. I watched him just standing there and waiting, and I hoped he'd get bored and move on before I reached him. I willed him to do it: _Go on kid, just go; keep walking. _But no such luck.

"Hey, Foxie," said Toboe happily as I shuffled reluctantly up to him. I had half a mind to accelerate suddenly and just go right on past before he could say anything else, but I really didn't want to get any closer to the other wolves; and besides, the only way I could feel even a little safe was to be sure that none of them were behind me. I did speed up a little bit, though, to a leisurely walking pace, and Toboe just fell in beside me and continued, "Gee, you've been really quiet since yesterday. Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," I replied tersely, staring straight ahead. We had lagged so much that we were only within shouting distance of the rest of the pack by now, but I didn't think that was necessarily a bad thing. I concentrated on the path and only half-listened as the pup talked. "Okay," he said, "but I just want you to know that if you ever need anything, I'll be glad to help you. Like if you felt sick or something . . . Are you _sure_ you feel okay?"

"I _said_ I did, didn't I?" I answered exasperatedly.

"Um, yeah. Sorry. I was just worried because you seemed so . . . well, quiet. And you looked kinda hungry this morning -"

"Hmph," I grunted, "well of course I was hungry; we barely stopped to eat at all yesterday. And forgive me for being quiet if I don't want to get yelled at again by Mr. 'Paradise-Isn't-For-_Dogs_.'" I made my voice all low and gravelly at the last part, mocking Tsume. He hadn't been very nice at all for the past day and a half; he'd only said about three words to me, and they had all been commands to hurry up and the like, barked out at me harshly and suddenly so that I jumped. I had also heard him making a few derogatory comments when he thought I wasn't listening. He gave me a weird, unpleasant feeling in the pit of my stomach that seemed oddly familiar, though I couldn't quite place it. It was almost like I wanted to cry. But I wouldn't let the old grouch see that; I'd avoid him instead. "That wolf is the most arrogant, rude, pushy sonofa-"

"Oh, no, Foxie!" cried Toboe. "I know Tsume's a bit rough on the outside, but he's actually pretty nice underneath all that. Sort of. I think he likes me at least a bit; he's saved my life before, y'know. I bet he'll like you too when he gets to know you better."

"Remember, kid, I'm not gonna be around that long."

"Oh, yeah." He actually sounded a little dejected. "Are you _sure_ you'd rather go to this town than to Paradise? I mean, it doesn't matter what Tsume says. Cheza likes you. I _know_ she likes you; she smiles at you all the time, but you just pretend not to notice. I bet she wants you to go to Paradise, and if she says it's okay, then it's okay! She's the Flower Maiden, after all."

I sighed. "There you go again with that Paradise stuff. Paradise, Paradise, Paradise, that's all I hear from you guys all day. What _is_ Paradise, anyway, and why should you care so much if I don't want to go there?" Toboe stared at me as if I'd just sprouted another head. "You don't know what Paradise is? But I thought everyone knew! Even I did when I lived with my Granny. Didn't your farm have any crows to bring you news? They told me all kinds of things about the world beyond the city, and what other wolves were doing." Toboe had told me all about his old life the day before: how he had grown up in a city with an old lady he called his Granny, how she had given him his name and his bracelets, how he had lived alone on the streets for a long time after she died, until he joined up with Kiba and the others. When he had told me that, it had almost gotten to my heart – so much of what he said about the old lady showed that he loved her, the same way I loved the farmer and Michiru. In return I had told him, and the others if they happened to be listening in, very briefly and vaguely about my life on the farm before retreating into myself and ignoring them all for the next twenty-four hours.

Now I told the pup, "Hey, I didn't talk to the damn crows, I just chased them away from the crops. So I don't know about Paradise, so what? Are you going to tell me what it is or not? Not that I care if you don't; I just thought it might be nice to have a clue what everyone keeps going on and on about."

"Oh, sure!" Toboe replied, and then he launched into an excited description of Paradise, or more correctly, what he _thought_ Paradise was like. Because apparently nobody had ever seen it, no one had ever been there. It was a legendary place that was beautiful and green and full of something called lunar flowers, and where wolves reigned supreme – they never had to worry about finding food or being alone, about being hunted or hated, and everyone had friends and family to love them. And, Toboe added with possibly even more glee, maybe humans and wolves would be at peace and could finally be friends there! He seemed so happy that I didn't have the heart to tell him that it all sounded like a load of crap. Instead I asked hesitantly, "Well, if nobody's ever seen this place, how do you know it's even really there?"

"Oh, it's there. How can you doubt it when Cheza's with us? She knows the way, and even though it's dangerous and it may take a really long time, I know we'll find Paradise someday." The pup's tail wagged wildly and he began almost prancing along the path in excitement.

"And just how does _she_ know where it is?"

"Because she's the Flower Maiden."

"So you keep saying, but what does that _mean_?"

"Have you noticed how Cheza just smells like flowers, no human at all?" I nodded and he continued, "Well, that's because she's a lunar flower; she really _is_ one. I know she looks human, but that's just because the humans made her that way with their . . . er, what's that word? I think it's . . . alchemy. I don't know exactly what that is, but that's what the others say. And since Cheza's a lunar flower and they grow in Paradise, Paradise calls to her and she can lead us to it." I just stared at him for a minute, speechless, before managing to say, "Oh." Toboe's explanation sounded even crazier than I had expected it to. I didn't understand how a bunch of grown wolves could believe in such a fairy tale and drag a pup along on a dangerous journey to go look for something that they'd certainly never find. Not only were they vicious and untrustworthy, but they were fools, too.

As soon as Toboe calmed down, he returned to my side and we walked in silence for a few more minutes, since I could no longer think of anything to say and the pup seemed content just to walk companionably beside me. He really was a nice kid, you know. I kinda wish I had learned to appreciate him sooner. But for the time being, I was only tolerating him because I basically had no choice. Out of all of the wolves, he confused me the most. Because he was friendly and had a good heart, and wolves weren't supposed to. I couldn't understand it, so I tried to think about it as little as possible and occupy my mind with something, anything else. I thought a bit about Cheza, who was sweet and kind and beautiful, and who really did smile at me a lot. I wasn't sure why I avoided her eyes, but it may have been because they filled me with a kind of peace and joy that scared me. Not even at home on the farm had I ever felt anything so perfect, and I didn't want anything the wolves had to be as good as what I had left behind – to think so would be treason on my family and my beloved teacher. I refused to be persuaded into not honoring their love and the lessons they had taught me, not for any space of time and not for any reason.

Just then, a loud holler from Tsume came from up ahead, making both me and Toboe look up. "Where the hell are you two!" yelled Tsume, sounding very pissed off. "You're slowing everyone down. Now hurry up before we leave you!" I sighed resignedly and picked up the pace, muttering nasty things about the gray wolf under my breath. Toboe hurried along, too, and I knew he was about to defend Tsume again until a call of, "Yeah, shake a leg, runt!" from Hige annoyed him enough to make him forget all about me as he yelled back, "Quit calling me that! I'm Toboe! TOBOE!" Hige just laughed in response to the pup's anger over the hated nickname; Toboe objected again, and soon the two were shouting back and forth across the space between the two groups and Tsume was threatening to beat the crap out of both of them if they didn't shut up. I hung my head and closed my eyes against a forming headache; this was gonna be a long trip.

* * *

I may as well just tell you now that what I said to Toboe that day about my being just fine was a complete and total lie. The headache I had gotten during Toboe's and Hige's fight hadn't been the first since we started out, and it refused to go away; it remained with me all through the rest of that day and night and well into the next afternoon because, I knew, it wasn't just a normal headache.

Like I said before, we didn't eat very often – just once a day if I was lucky – but none of the wolves knew what I ate when we did stop for a meal. Since the forest seemed for some reason to be remarkably void of all large game animals, such as deer, that could feed the pack for any great length of time, the wolves had lately gotten into the habit of splitting up to hunt for smaller prey and then meeting up again later to share what they'd caught. I admit that the first time they did this, my hunger got the best of me and I was about to join them – that is, until Tsume snapped that they didn't need my help and Blue, hearing a sudden rustle in the bushes nearby, pounced swiftly into the brush and brought down a large hare. Tsume had made me mad enough a moment before that I was already considering not going with them after all, but when I saw the black wolf trotting back toward us with the dead animal in her blood-covered jaws, its glassy eyes staring at me pitifully as its limp body swung back and forth with Blue's motion, it was the last straw. I froze, staring wide-eyed, for just a second before bolting blindly into the trees without a word to the others. None of them had been paying attention enough to see what had spooked me and I was a good distance away before they even realized I'd gone.

Within only a few minutes of fleeing the pack, I found a small thicket to hide myself in while I trembled and choked and tried to recover my senses. It was all too much like the sheep, you see – the hare's vacant eyes and the bloody mouth of the wolf recalled images of Getsuei's savagery to my mind and made me nauseous with fear and guilt. I stayed alone in my hideout for a long time before my stomach settled and my mind cleared enough for me to feel able to eat. That's when I finally crept out and began nosing around on the ground for nuts, berries, or anything else edible, a routine I was to continue for every meal to follow. The wolves almost never said anything when I slunk silently back into their midst after foraging and waited, eyes closed, on the fringes of the group for them to finish eating so we could move on. I never brought anything back for them, but I never asked for a share of their food, either, so they usually left me alone. Only Toboe sometimes asked questions, as you saw, when he noticed the glazed, tired look in my eyes that resulted from my meager diet of what really amounted to rodent food. I got headaches a lot and my stomach sometimes felt like an angry lynx was gnawing at it, but I still kept up my routine and hid my secret from the wolves, who were sure to laugh and scorn me if they found out. Not that I cared what they thought, but I _did_ have to live with them for a while, you know.

It's not that I didn't like meat, you understand; I had eaten meat at the farmer's table quite often and it was my favorite treat aside from cranberry sauce (don't ask), but then again, that meat had never looked even remotely like anything that had ever been alive. Sure, I had killed before. There was that fox who once broke into the chicken coop and just wouldn't give up; the hawk with the broken wing that still insisted on attacking anyone who came within reach, even when they were trying to help, and that had nearly taken off little Michiru's nose; and I'm sure that countless others I fought with were so badly wounded before they ran off that they later died in the privacy of their dens or burrows. But those animals had all been killers, dangerous and malignant. The hare Blue had killed, and all the other animals that wolves in general preyed upon, were innocent and defenseless. They didn't hurt anybody; they didn't deserve such a fate, to be tortured with fear as they ran for their lives from a beastly killing machine that they could never hope to escape without intervention. I had been there for the sheep, but the hare had had no one to protect it.

I couldn't watch the wolves eat, and I couldn't do what they did, even if it meant going hungry. I knew they did this sort of thing all the time and it was nothing to them, but it stood against everything I had grown up believing. I was a protector of prey, and though I was basically useless now that I had nobody but myself to protect, old habits die hard. The thought of chasing down some poor little animal and pouncing on it; of biting its neck till warm, metallic blood coated my lips and bones snapped under my teeth; of tearing into flesh still warm from an extinguished life rather than from a cook fire . . . it all made me sick. If the others wanted to do it, fine, but I would personally rather eat a rabbit's food than the rabbit.

I'm telling you all this not to bore you to death, as you may have been thinking, but because (oddly enough) all this angst on my part was to drag me closer to the wolves rather than push me farther away, as I'd hoped. Go figure.

It was the third evening of our journey, and we had finally stopped to eat again after fasting since around noon the day before. I was famished and dizzy, and I could hardly wait to find myself some acorns, even though they were not at all filling and they tasted like shit. Cheza, whom I had never seen eat even once during our whole trip, immediately found herself a tree root to sit on while she waited wait for everyone to come back from hunting, as she did every time. And as they did every time, the wolves began to debate over who should stay and wait with her; Cheza was never allowed to stay by herself, being vital to and practically worshipped by all the wolves. They would never risk anything happening to her. Kiba had stayed behind last time, and it looked like tonight it would be Hige's turn. I didn't really listen to the discussion; I had a pounding headache again and didn't really feel like doing anything just now, so I padded over to the softest pile of leaves I could find and lay down heavily, closing my eyes. It wasn't until Cheza began to run her fingers through my fur and scratch behind my ears that I realized my leaf pile happened to be right next to her. I was a bit startled, but the girl smelled nice and her caresses felt so good that I decided to stay put.

The wolves continued talking for a few more minutes and I had almost forgotten about them when Cheza suddenly interrupted their conversation by suggesting softly, "Maybe Foxfire could stay with this one tonight." There was a general, "Huh?" and the wolves all turned to us, looking a little taken aback. "Is that really what you want, Cheza?" Kiba asked gently. He didn't look as outraged as Tsume did, more like this was just a rather interesting idea that had never occurred to him. The girl smiled and answered, "Yes, this one would like it very much." Kiba looked a bit unsure, and Tsume huffed, "Puh! She doesn't look like she's even awake right now! How can she keep watch?"

"I _can_ hear, you know," I retorted with my eyes still closed. "I caught half the animals that snuck up on the sheep that way; I can hear them and smell them even when I doze off a bit. But I'm just resting my eyes now, so go on and do your thing. We'll be right here when you get back." I totally hadn't expected Cheza to ask for _me_ to stay with her, but I wasn't going to turn down a chance to rest. I was way too tired even to go foraging, but even though I had no idea where my dinner would come from that night, I couldn't motivate myself to move. I was staying one way or the other.

"Yes, go on," said Cheza. "We will be just fine." Kiba gazed at the Flower Maiden uncertainly for another moment before inevitably relenting. One thing you learned fast about Kiba was that he could hardly deny Cheza anything. I mean, all the wolves seemed spellbound by her, but he was the worst. "Alright, then," the white wolf said, coming up and giving Cheza a lick on the cheek before leaning down to me and adding, "Call for us if _anything_ goes wrong." His intense golden gaze disconcerted me so much that I could barely stutter out that I would. The other wolves seemed to agree with Kiba's decision for the most part, except Tsume, who cried, "You _can't_ be seriously considering this, Kiba!" The wolves usually tended to follow Kiba, though he wasn't really their leader (Toboe had explained that they didn't actually have one – another reason why they were so weird) and the other pack members were always free to disagree or refuse if they wanted. This being the case, Kiba didn't reply to Tsume, but just turned without a word and raced swiftly off into the forest, leaving the gray wolf to make his own decision. Hige went in another direction a moment later; then Tsume also left, with a disgusted snort, and Toboe and Blue went their own way. I heard the pup start to say something to Blue, but his voice soon faded with distance. I was glad when quiet settled over the forest after their departure.

Cheza's hands never stopped their gentle caresses. It was amazing; she seemed to know exactly where to scratch and where to stroke, what was sore or achy. I could almost forget how hungry I was when I was with her. I could almost forget . . . everything. The sudden occurrence of that thought startled me so much that my body jerked and I half-rose in fright, anxiously dragging into my consciousness images of Michiru and the farmer, Thorny and Tsuta; I hastily recalled the sounds of their voices, their odd personality quirks, anything, and was relieved enough when I found that it was all still there in my mind to lay back in the leaves again while I waited for my heart rate to settle back down to normal. Cheza's touch had been gone for only a moment when I started up, and as soon as I relaxed again, she went back to smoothing my fur. A soft sigh escaped me, too soft to be audible, or so I thought until the flower-girl spoke.

"You are sad," she observed simply in a voice that was gentle as a breeze and full of sympathy. It surprised me so much that I raised my head to look at her. Not that I didn't think the fact was painfully obvious, but I was surprised that _she_ had noticed it, as she was always at the front of the pack with Kiba or having her attention taken up by the other wolves. When she had taken a moment to smile at me, I had always looked away and ignored her. She wasn't angry? After looking into her concerned pink eyes for a few seconds, I slowly lowered my gaze to the ground, sighing, "Yeah, kinda." Then I lay my head back on my paws in a gesture of dismissal. There was nothing she could do, and I really didn't want any pity. Pity was a useless emotion; it never made a difference.

There was a soft rustle as Cheza slid off her perch and sat down in the leaves next to me, her knee touching my side. She was very warm, more than most humans. Curious, I looked up again, and the girl gave me a little scratch under the chin before gently taking my head in her hands and turning it so she could look right into my eyes. "You are afraid, too . . . . This one knows you miss them. Of course you do. It is only right to feel sad when we lose someone we love . . . ." She got a far away look in her eyes for just a moment and she looked away. "This one still thinks sometimes about the other flowers that went before, the ones they made first and then threw away, and misses them. They were this one's sisters. They died so that this one could live." I felt a lump rising in my throat, though I couldn't explain why. The girl's eyes looked sad, so sad, and I couldn't help feeling suddenly that she knew exactly what I was going through and that she genuinely shared my grief as if it were her own. She looked back at me before continuing, "But your loved ones are not gone; they're still alive somewhere, and you should take comfort from that. You will always love and miss them, Foxfire, and that's alright. That's good. But you must know that there is room enough in your heart for them _and_ others."

"W-what?" I whispered shakily, fighting back raging emotions that threatened to escape me as pathetic whimpering. The memories of my family had suddenly come back with a new force, and while I was glad to know I could still remember them, the thought that I'd never see them again now began to hurt worse than it ever had before. The girl said, "You have a good heart, Foxfire, a big heart that can love many and is destined for great things. This one sees how you struggle, how you are confused . . . . It is the same struggle that Blue went through when she first joined us."

My ears pricked up at this. "Blue? She felt like I do? But w-why?"

"She, too, comes from a different world. Unlike the others, she is only a half-wolf and was raised by humans. The man who raised her hated wolves and used her to hunt them; as far as we know, he is still hunting us. Blue had grown up believing that wolves were evil, but when this one met her and told her the truth about herself, she felt she needed to come away and find out more about her other half. She thought at first that she only had the ability to love one or the other, man or wolf, but you see her now; she is very much a part of our pack and is devoted to Hige, but she still loves the human who was a father to her and misses him terribly. She hopes he will be our friend one day, too, and then she can truly be a part of both worlds." I stared, and then looked down at the dry, crackling leaves between my paws. "Wow," I breathed, "I had no idea." When I looked back at her, I saw that she was once again smiling sweetly at me.

"And so it is for you," Cheza continued. "You can love the ones you have lost _and_ the ones you will find. They will always be a part of you. You don't have to choose. You don't have to fear who you are."

Now, I wasn't stupid; don't think I didn't know what she was really saying. She still thought I was a wolf, even though I had explained to them all about Getsuei (leaving out all the strange details, I assure you) on the first day. I knew it had to be him the wolves were smelling on me, but they seemed reluctant to take my word for it. Hell, like I wouldn't know better than them what _I_ was! Whatever. If they wanted to be all suspicious, it was their problem; I didn't have the patience or the desire to keep defending myself to them. But the things Cheza was saying were doing something to my confidence, making me falter. She seemed to know my heart almost better than I did and she was bringing to light fears I hadn't even known I had till she mentioned them. How had she known that I worried about forgetting or betraying my family? That was part of why I had never acknowledged her smiles; I never told her, but somehow she knew. I shivered. What else did she know?

Gasping with sudden unease, I abruptly tore my gaze away from the Cheza's and shook myself, trying to clear my mind. For a moment there, I had felt myself begin to open up to the flower-girl; her eyes and her words were soothing and begged my trust and acceptance, but I couldn't give them to her, no matter how kind she was. _No, no, she's just mistaken, too_, I told myself firmly. It was just that Blue had acted the same way when she first came out here. The maiden was just remembering Blue's problem and projecting her old fears onto me, getting herself a little confused. It was an easy enough mistake to make, I supposed. This was a completely different situation, though. Blue had turned out to be a half-wolf and had adjusted to a wolf's life just fine, it seemed, but she was not me.

It was very kind of the Flower Maiden to try to help, though. I had to tell her how I felt about all this, but I would be sure to do it nicely. Looking sidelong at Cheza and choosing my words carefully, I said, "Thank you, Cheza. Really. I understand, and I'll try and remember that when I get to Stonewall. I know there must be _some_one there who'll take in a stray. My new humans will be different, but that doesn't mean I won't be happy with them. Maybe the town will even be as enjoyable as the country in some ways. I'll try my best to love them at least almost as much as I loved my old family."

Silence greeted my words, and when I finally dared to glance at Cheza, I saw that she was staring bleakly at her hands, which were clasped in her lap. She knew I had gotten the true meaning of her words and had just twisted them to imply something completely different, and she was crestfallen. "So," she whispered, "you still wish to hide." I opened my mouth to object, but closed it again when I realized there was nothing I could say that would both be honest and make her feel better. I had to make her understand that all this stuff with wolves, Paradise, and lunar flowers had nothing to do with me, and I was going to go back to where I belonged. Still, I hated seeing her sad like that, so I lay my head in her lap to comfort her and she began stroking my fur again. "Hide if you must, my friend," she murmured almost inaudibly, "but this one will miss you when we are gone, and wish you were with us at the gates of Paradise."

And so we waited, knowing we wanted to be close to one another and yet knowing all too well how wide a chasm stood between us.


End file.
